News

The Estonian capital Tallinn, announced that Nordecon is the winner in the €19.8 million tender for reconstruction of the Haabersti road intersection. As part of the reconstruction, two tunnels - 38m and 54m – will be built for cyclists and pedestrians. Phase one of the project includes a 277m-long road bridge in the direction of Paldiski Road and phase two will construction of a roundabout with traffic lights. The project is co-financed by the EU Cohesion Fund and completion is set for October 201

Budapest’s iconic Széchenyi Chain Bridge that was opened in 1849 is set for a €73 million upgrade starting this summer, according to Hungarian media. Work will include revamping of a nearby tunnel in the Hungarian capital with completion set for the end of 2019. The suspension Chain Bridge spans the River Danube between Buda and Pest and was designed by English engineer William Tierney Clark following an initiative by the Count István Széchenyi. It is a larger scale version of Clark's earlier Marlow B

Latvia’s capital Riga will invest around €280,000 to upgrade pedestrian crossings and another €400,000 in better traffic lights. The aim is to improve visibility and vehicle flow at pedestrian crossings because of concerns over the number of accidents, some of them fatal to children. According to local media, police reported 65 traffic accidents at crossings last year. Three were fatal and ten of the accidents seriously injured children. So far this year, 16 such traffic accidents have been registered

Poor road conditions present a major hazard to drivers in the Australian state of Victoria. Research by Australian motoring club, RACV, of data from VicRoads shows that 1,452km of the regional road network, around 7.4% of the system, is in a distressed state. The RACV is urging Victoria’s State Government to boost its road repair budget for 2017 to US$229 million (A$300 million) and begin tackling the problem. In all $916 million will be required to address the state’s road repair problem as long as work st

Russian road project construction tenders faced a series of serious problems in 2016. Around 30% of the tenders planned in 2016 actually fell through, according to the road agency FAS. The tenders were worth some US$4.78 billion. However the FAS intends to ensure that the majority of the road project tenders for the 2017-2019 period go through. The FAS is also intent on tackling cartels operating in the road construction sector and introduce fair competition to the industry.

Work on a new 550km-long coastal highway is to commence in northern Vietnam. The highway will be built across five provinces and will connect with Haiphong City. The planned route will run through the provinces of Thanh Hoa, Ninh Binh, Nam Dinh, Thai Binh and Quang Ninh. The project should be complete by 2020 should all go to plan and is to be carried out under the PPP model. The cost of the entire highway has yet to be revealed. However the 61km stretch through Thahn Hao Province looks set to have a pricet

Caterpillar is closing its factories in Aurora Illinois and at Gosselies in Belgium, with the loss of around 3,000 jobs in all. The Aurora facility makes wheeled loaders, with production being switched over to facilities at Decatur, also in Illinois, as well as North Little Rock in Arkansas. This will result in the loss of 800 jobs at the Aurora plant although there will be more personnel required at the Decatur and North Little Rock facilities that will offset the losses Meanwhile the firm says that the

A continuing improvement in road safety is being seen in Vietnam. There were 3,800 people injured on Vietnam’s roads in the first quarter of 2017, a notable decline from the same period in the previous year. Road deaths also dropped in the first quarter of 2017 compared with the same period in the previous year, falling to 2,100. Meanwhile the total number of road crashes in the first quarter of 2017 dropped by 3.51% to 4,800. The casualty statistics for 2016 improved compared with 2015 also, with road dea

Argentina looks set to benefit from a series of major new transport projects. Loans worth up to US$650 million will help pay for a series of projects, including Argentina’s contribution to the Agua Negra Tunnel link with neighbouring Chile. The loans will be organised by the Inter-American Development Bank (IADB). A further loan of $156 million to road concession company AUSA will help pay for transport projects in Buenos Aires, including the construction of the Lacarra Bridge to connect with Lanus and upgr

The Peruvian Government is evaluating the potential for a new central highway. The route of the highway would keep it at a distance from rivers so as to reduce the risk of flooding. Existing highways have suffered serious flooding as well as landslides in Peru in recent months. Constructing the new highway could cost from US$ 1billion to $1.5 billion while the work would take around five years to carry out.

Back to the Future met Ghostbusters on the streets of London recently

A new bridge will be built spanning the Samur River, which forms part of the border between Azerbaijan and Russia. Construction work is expected to commence later this year. Much of the initial financing for the bridge project will come from Azerbaijan’s budget, although Russia’s Federal Road Agency will pay its portion in due course, as well as funding work on the connecting roads. The project should be complete by 2019 if all goes to plan.

LiuGong has opened its new Global Customer Experience Centre in Liuzhou, China. The facility is intended to boost cooperation between LiuGong and Liuzhou Vocational and Technical College (LVTC) and also extends LiuGong’s offering to its global dealers and customers. The Customer Experience Centre will be managed by both LiuGong and LVTC as a platform for talent cultivation, service training to LiuGong employees and dealers as well as for its customer experience. The facility can provide multi-functional

Drivers in Nicaragua’s capital Managua look set to benefit from a series of road projects being planned. The work is intended to cut congestion at peak periods and smooth traffic flow. One of the major projects will be the upgrading of the Juan Pablo II motorway, with the addition of five new flyover sections. A loan worth US$105 million from the Central American Bank for Economic Integration (CABEI) plus another loan worth $136 million from the European Investment Bank (EIB) will help pay for the project.