Highway & Network Management

Plans are well in hand for a new link that will improve connections between capital Santiago and its fast growing satellite town of Lampa. The US$130 million project will shorten the current journey time of one hour to 35 minutes and is expected to carry some 10,000 - 17,000 vehicles/day when it opens to traffic.

Work on the eastern section of the Hunter Expressway project in New South Wales in Australia will be carried out by Theiss. The firm won the deal for preliminary design and development of the US$736 million (A$825 million) project, which is for a 13.3km section of the link. Theiss is working on the project with Hyder Consulting and Parsons Brinkerhoff. Once the Hunter Expressway is complete in late 2013, it will cut travel times from the Hunter to Newcastle by 28 minutes.

Turkey is continuing its development of new highway links, with plans for a new highway connecting the cities of Rize and Mardin. When complete in 2023, the new highway will pass through 15 cities in all and reduce the travel time between Rize and Mardin to 5-6 hours compared with 12 at present. Turkey is investing heavily in transport as part of its development programme.Turkey is continuing its development of new highway links, with plans for a new highway connecting the cities of Rize and Mardin. When co

The consortium building Australia's new Northern Link tollway expects the project to require four years to complete. The US$1.41 billion (A$1.5 billion) project is being carried out by a consortium led by Spanish contrator Acciona, with construction due to commence at the end of this year. The work is being part funded by a $745 million loan from the State Government for the area and will also receive $532 million of funding from the Federal Government.

Work is now underway in Bangladesh on the country's new Dhaka Elevated Expressway. The construction work is being carried out by Italian-Thai Development and the project is expected to help address Dhaka's chronic traffic congestion issues. The project is costing US$1.2 billion and the 26km route will carry the expressway through Dhaka, including Kamalapur, Golapbag, Tejgaon, Kuril and Banani.

The Danish government has shelved the plans for a road toll scheme for Copenhagen. The decision has been welcomed by opposition parties, and the government is now set increase funding for public transport so that ticket prices can be reduced.

Israeli financing looks to be one funding option for the Northern Tunnel project planned in the Russian city of Rostov. The plan calls for a 2.5km tunnel that will be tolled and link the city centre with the Northern residential area and will help reduce congestion on Nagibin Avenue. This is at present the only large highway linking the city centre with the residential district and is congested at peak periods. The tunnel project is valued at US$252 million and construction work is expected to take six year

Plans are moving forward in France for the beltway project around the city of Strasbourg. This tolled highway project is now expected to cost up to €756 million, compared with the original estimate of €400 million quoted during the call to tender in 2009. Vinci won the concession for the link. Should the project progress according to schedule, construction work could commence in 2013. The highway would then be opened to traffic in late 2016 or early 2017. The 24km highway is intended to features two lanes

While both the police and firefighting are recognised as occupations that carry dangers, nearly 13 per cent of the firefighters and police officers who die in the line of duty are killed in vehicle-related incidents, while fire trucks are involved in ten times as many collisions as other heavy trucks.