Finance & Funding

The troubled tunnel construction project in Colombia to build the La Linea link has faced yet a further setback in its long tale of woe. The tender for the completion of the final 12% of the tunnel project has not managed to attract any interest from contractors. The budget for this work is an estimated US$77 million. A new tender process is being launched, with a submission deadline of 6th June 2017 and planned winner announcement on 4th July 2017. The contractor that had been building the tunnel failed to

Funding has been found for the new bridge that will connect Bangladesh with China. Called the Friendship Bridge, the project has been the subject of negotiations between the two countries. Funding worth US$83 million is being provided by China to pay for the construction of the new link, the ninth connecting the two countries. To date the construction of seven Bangladesh-China Friendship Bridge links have been funded by China. The eighth bridge link is under construction at present and will span the Kocha R

Slovakia is reporting delays to works on the D1 motor, the country’s major east-west corridor and part of several pan-European routes, including the E50. The planned 2020 completion of the D1 motorway linking Bratislava - Kosice could be 2021. There are reported technical complications to the section between Lietavska Lucka - Dubna Skala stretch with the Visnove tunnel near Zilina is experiencing complications. Work by the consortium of OHL and Vahostav on the D1 stretch Hubova – Ivachvova is suspended due

The World Bank is providing US$200 million to Zambia for the country’s rural road development programme. The funding is being provided through the International Development Association (IDA) and will help pay for improvements to rural roads in six of 10 provinces in Zambia. Meanwhile the country itself will pay for rural road upgrades in the remaining four provinces. These road upgrades are required as they will help boost economic development in Zambia’s poorest outlying areas. At present just 17% of those

Hessen will spend around €640 million renovating and expanding six motorway interchanges. According to media reports, around €126 million will go toward construction of new parking areas for trucks. Hesse state has one of Germany’s most dense road networks that includes 24 motorways. The internationally important motorway routes through Hesse are the A3, A5, and A7. Close to the airport of Frankfurt is the Frankfurter Kreuz, Germany's busiest and one of Europe's busiest motorway junctions, where the motorwa

India’s major infrastructure expansion programme is attracting major financing packages, which will help develop its transport networks. A series of infrastructure projects are planned for seven of India’s Northeast states by the Indian Government. In all some US$6.22 billion will be used to improve the region’s transport network according to the plans, with highways, roads and rail link all being built or improved.

The Senegal Government is pushing ahead with its programme of infrastructure expansion. The development of the country’s road transport network is continuing, with Senegal having increased its spending by a factor of 10 in the period from 2005 to 2017. New highways are being built at present and these will join the towns of Mbour, Thiès and Touba to the network by 2018.

The tender process is now being opened for the feasibility study into the planned highway project to link Nigeria’s commercial centre Lagos with Abidjan, the commercial centre for Ivory Coast.

The Polish ministry of infrastructure announced that it will retender for building the last 27km section of the Expressway S14 around Lodz. Poland’s road authority GDDKiA said it was not satisfied with the offers it had received during the tender. They were higher than the budget by around €59 million, reaching upwards of €487 million. Local governments reportedly fear that construction delays could disrupt the Specialised Expo from June to September, 2022 if the city of Lodz were to be chosen. The wining c

Proposals are being put forward for a major motorway project in Thailand. Costing an estimated US$1.16 billion, the tender process for the Bang-pa-in-Nakhon Sawan motorway project is expected to commence in 2019. The Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) for the project is due to start in due course. Another motorway project planned is for the Hat Yai-Sadao link. This last will be carried out under the PPP model and tendering is expected to commence in 2018.