News

Malaysia's federal government has earmarked nearly US$190 million for construction of roads in the state of Sarawak's rural areas, under the armed forces Jiwa Murni programme. The programme is a government initiative to use military expertise to improve the living conditions in rural areas, including, apart from road building, housebuilding, bridge building and natural disaster construction projects. The recent announcement for work in Sarawak, on the island of Borneo, includes the upgrade of former l

The World Bank is providing funding to Vietnam to upgrade road and bridge links, as well as flood control and sanitation. The Local Bridge Construction and Road Asset Management operation is worth $385 million. It will improve access to roads, while transport costs for road users in participating provinces will be decreased. A total of 2,174 small bridges will be built or rebuilt to boost links to isolated and impoverished communities in 50 provinces across the country. This project will be worth $245.5

The tender process is underway in Turkey for a major tunnel project. The package of works is for the planning, project and engineering design for a new three-storey underwater tunnel that is planned for Turkey’s commercial centre, Istanbul. Named the Big Istanbul Tunnel, the route is expected to run under the Bosporus. The tunnel is anticipated to feature two storeys carrying vehicle traffic, with a third carrying a rail link. This would cut journey times to just 14 minutes. The engineering work is expected

The Philippines has signed a deal with the Export-Import Bank of Korea - Korea Eximbank – US$100 million loan. The 40-year loan will finance the Panguil Bay Bridge Project in Northern Mindanao. According to a report in Business World, the project requires a total investment of around $103.6 million. Panguil Bay is the narrow and shallow body of water between Lanao del Norte and Misamis Occidental. At its narrowest it is around 2km across. Considered a major infrastructure development in Northern Mindana

The tender process has been held in Turkey for the construction of connection roads for Istanbul's third bridge spanning the Bosporus. The focus of the road project will be the construction of the 170km Kurtkoy-Akyazi highway. In all eight groups submitted bids, including Cengiz Insaat-Limak Insaat joint-venture (JV), Makyol Insaat, Kolin Insaat-Kalyon Insaat-Hasen Yapi JV, Tekfen Insaat-Dogus Insaat JV, Nurol Insaat-Ozaltin Insaat-Fernas Insaat-Ozgun Insaat JV, STFA Holding- Gulsan Insaat- Yapi Merkezi JV,

A new system dubbed the Textalyser could reveal if drivers in the US state of New York were using a phone at time of a collision. The device has been developed to allow police to analyse whether drivers were using a mobile phone at the time of a crash. The device checks the metadata on a phone to see if it was used recently. This method ensures that messages, contacts, photos, and so on are kept private. New York City is proposing that police use these devices to catch drivers who are distracted by thei

Romania’s road network is developing to meet demand. Data from country’s National Institute of Statistics (INS) reveals that the total length of highways in the country grew by 9.4%, or by 64km, in 2015 compared to 2014. Meanwhile highways now account for 4.2% of the total length of Romania’s road routes. At the end of 2015, public roads totalled 86,080km, of which 17,606km, or 20.5% of the total, were national roads, 35,316km, or 41%, were county roads and up to 33,158km, or 38.5%, were communal roads.

The Ministry of Road Transport and Highways has set a target to lay 15,000km of roads during 2016/17, according to a government source. The target means that around 40km of roads will be paved each day - two times the current figure, according to the business magazine Steel Guru. The National Highways and Industrial Development Corporation’s target is 7,000km and that of the National Highways Authority of India is 8,000km. The NHIDCL will award national highway contracts covering 10,000km and the N

Poland has set out an ambitious programme for road development to expand its network. The programme of works is running from 2014-2023. The country’s General Directorate for National Roads and Motorways (GDDKiA) has revealed that some 157 tenders have so far been announced within the National Road Construction Programme during this time period. The projects involve the construction of around 2,089km of roads. The total value of this work is around €15.67 billion. So far around 90 of the tenders have resulte

From World Highways comes a new online construction software trials section, which allows software companies to introduce their products to a wider audience. This new section of the website is aimed at highlighting new software tools that can add value to companies operating in the road construction sector. The area allows readers access to FREE trials and demonstrations of the latest construction software available. It can be accessed using the software trials button at the top right hand side of the World

Dubai’s Roads and Transport Authority has approved a US$28.6 million deal for a bridge linking the south and north of Jebel Ali Free Zones. According to the chairman of RTA, Mattar Al Tayer, the project is part of the authority's master plan for tunnels, crossings, bridges and roads. The announced works include building a six-lane highway to link Jafza South and Jafza North across the Sheikh Zayed Road. RTA said the project is set to take 18 months and is implemented in partnership with the Jebel Ali

Funding has been secured for a major highway project in Pakistan. Some US$100 million is being provided by the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) for work on Pakistan’s M-4 Motorway project. The investment will take the form of co-financing for the Shorkot-Khanewal section of this major road project. AIIB is based in China and has commented that there is major potential in Pakistan for infrastructure development.

A proposed bridge across the Kattegat Sea in northern Europe would be cheaper for the Danish government than previously expected, according to an engineering report. The bridge between Denmark’s Jutland and Zealand islands would need around €2.02 billion in government subsidies, noted the report from Danish engineering consultancy Rambøll. A previous report from the Ministry of Transport concluded that subsidies would have to be around €6.85 billion and need to be financed by loans. This caused the mi

Brazil's national department of transport infrastructure, Dnit, has approved a proposal to suspend work on 29 road projects across 12 states. The approval comes after severe budget cuts this year and the number of affected works could increase to 61. Dnit noted, however, that no work will be immediately stopped and that current contracts will be maintained. The proposal will now go before the Ministry of Transport and Planning and the Office of the Chief of Staff before it can receive final approva

Work on the Huntly section of the Waikato Expressway in New Zealand is running ahead of schedule. As a result, the section of this major highway project now looks likely to open early. The Huntly section of this US$319.55 million (NZ$458 million project extends for 15.2km. After eight months of construction activity the work is now further ahead than originally expected. This section of the Waikato Expressway project now looks likely to open in December 2019. It was originally expected to be open in March 2