News

Egis Projects and its partner Fulton Hogan Construction have won a major contract for the operation and maintenance of the WestConnex highway link in New South Wales Australia. The package was awarded by Sydney Motorway Corporation (SMC) to Fulton Hogan Egis O&M (FHEO&M). The partners hold equal 50% shares in the project. Egis has its share in the Australian project through its Australian subsidiary Egis Projects Asia Pacific.

In the Algerian province of Oran, construction of the second ring road linking Belgaid to El-Kerma is 60% complete and should be open by June. Also, the motorway between Oran port and the East-West motorway, costing around $448.46 million, is due to be complete in July 2017, according to a report in Le Quotidien d'Oran. Work is being done by the Algerian-Turkish group ENGOA-MAKYOL and the project is being overseen by Agence nationale des autoroutes (ANA). Widening of the CW46 linking Sidi Marouf to

Financially delinquent contractors working on Indian projects will, from now on, find they are labelled a “non-performer” and barred from further work until they remedy their cash flow. The move by the National Highway Authority of India (NHAI) is an attempt to speed up site work and complete public-private partnership road projects on time. Under the new policies, firms that delay construction or fail to inject their share of capital into their projects will be barred from participating in fresh bids un

The cost of building the Padma Bridge in Bangladesh will be nearly three times the US$2.61 billion estimated in 2011. Also on the rise is the cost of flood prevention work in the form of levee construction – called river training in Bangladesh. The addition of 1.3km of work at the Mawa end of the bridge means the total cost is now $1.2 billion, up from $1.1 billion. Apart from $200 from the $1 billion loan from India the project is not using any foreign financing, according to a report in the Daily S

Strong measures in Spain have helped reduce the country’s road fatality rate enormously in recent years. Tougher enforcement of road rules commenced in 2004, with a notable drop in speeding and drink driving, resulting in a reduce rate of crashes. However a recent report from the Spanish motoring body RACC reveals that the figures have hit a plateau, with road fatalities for 2015 similar to those in 2014. This is the third consecutive year that Spain’s road fatality rates have remained broadly unchanged. Th

Shiyan City in China’s Hubei Province has seen a major increase in its road and highway network, due to significant spending on road construction in the area. Between 2011 and 2015, the total length of the road network in Shiyan City increased to 26,989km, following spending of some US$7.07 billion on road construction by the authorities. The network expansion programme also included building four highways, with a total length of 522km while the rural road network grew by 7,425km in all. The development of

A report from Cambodia’s General Commissariat of National Police gives cause for concern at country’s high rate of road crashes. Fatalities from road crashes in 2015 rose to 2,265, a climb of 5% compared to 2014. There were 9,775 people injured in road crashes in Cambodia in 2015, a drop of 4% compared with 2014. An accurate figure for the number of road crashes in 2015 has yet to be released by the General Commissariat of National Police but an estimate puts this at around 4,600, compared with the official

Japan’s National Police Agency has revealed that the country’s road death figures increased slightly in 2015 compared with 2014. Total road fatalities for Japan in 2015 stood at 4,117, an increase of 0.1% from the previous year. There were 536,789 crashes in Japan during 2015, which injured 665,126 people. Of particular concern is the data showing that traffic deaths for those aged 65 or over rose by 2.5% to 2,247 in all, a worrying 54.6% of the total road fatality figure. Official information has not so fa

Tough enforcement of traffic offences in Indonesia’s congested capital Jakarta is being implemented. During 2015 the number of traffic offenders who received summons increased by 15% to 1,037,828, compared with 865,197 in 2014. Of the total, 428,195 traffic offenders were younger drivers aged from 16 - 30. Most of the road offences were committed by motorcyclists, totalling at some 770,252. Also in 2015, the number of motorists who received summonses for driving in the wrong direction rose by 69.6% to 169,5

The Texas Department of Transportation is poised to give the go-ahead to US$1.27 billion worth of freeway to start this year. Plans include extensions to Texas 249 and US 290 in order to give Waller County greater access to major freeways and tollways, according to media reports. The biggest project, which is expected to begin this summer, is the addition of toll lanes to Texas 288, costing $800 million. Work will also be carried out at interchanges between the 288 toll road, Loop 610 and the Sam Hous

The Peruvian Ministry of Transport and Communication has confirmed that by July nearly 20,000km of the Red Vial Nacional national highway network will be paved. The figure means nearly 87% of roads in Peru will be paved. In 2011, around 12,500km of the network was paved, according to a report by America Economia. The ministry also highlighted that regions such as Amazonas and Ayacucho, will have doubled the number of paved kilometres since 2011. Amazonas will rise from 36% in 2011 to 72% this year, wh

Major highway projects are seeing progress in India. The US$1.52 billion Zojila Pass tunnel project is being planned in the state of Jammu and Kashmir. The project has been awarded to local road development firm IRB Infrastructure Developers (IRB). The 14.08km tunnel is expected to take seven years to complete. The concession for the project is for 22 years. As part of the deal, IRB will oversee the construction of 10.8km of approach roads on Srinagar-Sonamarg-Gumri Road in Jammu and Kashmir.