News

Nicaragua is continuing to develop its highway network, this time with a major project planned for the capital, Managua. A loan worth close to US$107.5 million from the Central American Bank for Economic Integration (CABEI) is to help pay for the project. The work calls for the upgrade and widening of the Pista Juan Pablo II route running through Managua. The 9.55km stretch of road will benefit from three additional lanes, helping to boost capacity and reduce congestion and delays at peak periods. Safety pr

Regional contractor Windisch has put five Terex TA300 articulated haulers to work shifting 1.4 million m3 of earth on the A5 motorway extension in Austria. The five 28tonne capacity TA300s have been selected by local contractor Windisch to take part in the expansion of the North Autobahn (A5) which will form a modern highway between Vienna in Austria and Brno in the Czech Republic. Austrian distributor Mlecka Construction, just outside of Vienna in Oeynhausen, supplied the vehicles that work 12-hour s

Work will soon start on the €1.3 billion project to widen a stretch of the A6 motorway, one of Germany’s most congested highways. Both sides of the motorway between the Weinsberg and Wiesloch/Rauenberg junctions will be expanded. On 25 km of the section being expanded under the project – altogether 47.1 km – the number of lanes will be increased from four to six. The project also encompasses the construction of the 1.3km-long Neckartal Bridge. Preparatory work for the public-private partnership has

Germany's Hochtief and US-based Fluor have been awarded a preliminary construction contract for the Zuidasdok regeneration project in Amsterdam. Hochtief and Fluor will each secure 42.5% of the €990 million contract while Dutch contractor Heijmans will secure 15%. Zuidasdok - a joint project by the city of Amsterdam, ProRail and Rijkswaterstaat – will redevelopment the area around Amsterdam Zuid train and metro station, including major changes to the A10 motorway. ProRail is a government organisati

Nicaragua is planning to build a new coastal highway that will improve transport connections between capital Managua and Rivas in the south of the country. Work on the design of the first section of the new highway is now commencing. The route will run close to Nicaragua’s Pacific Coast and is intended to boost trade and transport. The contractor that will carry out the construction work has yet to be finalised although initial plans had suggested that the firm Inocsa-Edicro would be responsible. A 131km hi

Pakistan is setting out plans to rebuild infrastructure that has been damaged by flooding. The work to rebuild highways and bridges damaged by the flooding is expected to cost nearly US$219 million. Funding to help pay for the work is being provided in the shape of a loan worth close to $197 million from the Philippines-based Asian Development Bank (ADB). Pakistan’s National Highways Authority (NHA) has set out a programme of works that involves repairing and upgrading a total of 212km of road as well as 33

The structural condition of bridges in South Australia is now being analysed following concerns over their integrity. The authorities in South Australia have hired the consulting company Aurecon to conduct a comprehensive study of 1,500 bridges located across the state. This follows after a 1.6km section of road in Adelaide had to be partly closed to traffic due to potential defects being detected in a bridge carrying trams over the road stretch. The five day closure of the road section caused major traffic

Somerford Equipment, a UK manufacturer of road marking and road surfacing vehicles and equipment, has supplied Iraq with two road marking vehicles.

Russia is setting out its plans for 14 major highway projects. A budget of US$1 billion has been set by the Federal Road Agency, Rosavtodor, for the work, which will involve building some 220km of highways in total. Key projects being discussed include upgrading the existing A-181 Scandinavia route that runs between the Finnish border and St Petersburg and building the M-56 Lena route in the Amur Region, which shares a border with China’s Heilongjiang Province. The M-56 is an important route for Russia’s ea

Poland is pushing ahead with plans to complete a section of the A1 highway. This stretch of the highway lies between Pyrzowice and Czestochowa in the south of the country. The work is expected to be funded to the tune of €315 million from the EU Cohesion Fund. This stretch of highway will play a key role in Poland’s future economic development when it opens to traffic in mid-2019. It will improve the transport connections with the important industrial city of Katowice in the south of the country and also wi

Venture Lighting Europe reports that the London Borough of Merton is the latest to use the company’s advanced VLED Westminster Retrofit Street Light engine Merton has around 3,000 of the Westminster light engines that use the latest technology, SUPRAX glass optic. The VLED module has been retrofitted to the council’s existing street lighting lanterns as part of a borough-wide upgrade to LED lighting from its previous SON lamps. Installed by Kier Street Lighting Services, this initiative was delivered

The Finnish government has axed controversial plans to privatise the operation of a large number of major roads and turn them into user-pay infrastructure. But transport Minister Anne Berner also announced that the government would now keep a tax on new car sales. The tax was going to be scrapped as part of the move to make road users pay tolls. Berner had recently announced that the government would put the operation of major highways under a new stand-alone agency that would engage the private secto

Poland plans to issue a number of major highway construction tenders early this year as part of plan to boost the number of high-speed road projects started in 2017. Around €4.84 billion be spent this year on road construction and maintenance. Expected to be on offer is the missing A1 section between Tuszyn and Czestochowa as well as construction of an S61 dual carriageway from Ostrowia Mazowiecka to Szczuczyn. Polish media reported that around 124km of dual carriageways and motorways were built last