News

China is offering an interest-free US$130 million loan to Pakistan for construction of the Gwadar East Bay Expressway in the southwest port of Gwadar. The proposed 19km expressway will connect the Gwadar Port with the Mekran Coastal Highway, passing along the east bay of Gwadar City. The loan is part of a wider financing deal whereby China has a converted $225.5 million loan for the Gwadar International Airport into a loan. Work on the highway is expected to start in November for completion at the

Michelin has invested in the Chinese start-up company Luli Information Technology, based in Shanghai. Luli was set up in 2014 to develop applications for vehicle ride-sharing services in China, and created the app Lu You Tong Xing Michelin said its investment, through the French global tyre maker’s Incubator programme, will help Luli develop more products in a market where ride-sharing is growing in popularity. Jean-Claude Zhang, chief executive of Luli Information Technology said Michelin’s investme

Tenders for construction of connecting roads for Istanbul's third bridge over the Bosporus have been postponed for the fourth time. A tender for the Kurtkoy-Akyazi motorway tender will be held on March 1 next year with that for the Kinali-Odayeri road will be held a week later, the Dünya Gazetesi newspaper reported. The tenders will be held as part of the 260km North Marmara Motorway project that includes the soon to be completed Yavus Sultan Selim Bridge. Completion of the connecting roads is plan

In Slovakia work on three sections of the D1 highway will be complete shortly. One of these is for a 9km section of the D1 from Janovce -Jablonov, which is built by the Czech firm Bogl and Krysl. A 9.5km section of the D1 from Janovce -Jablonov is being built by Eurovia and will be ready at the end of 2015. The 11.2km section of the D1 from Fricovce - Svinia is being built a consortium comprising Strabag and Doprastav and is scheduled for completion in October 2015. The 10.4km section of the R2 route from P

The authorities in Moscow will shortly open the tender process for the first section of the Solntsevo-Butovo-Vidnoye highway. The contract to build the road is worth some US$388.46 million. The work on the 7km section of the road will include the construction of eight lanes for traffic area, on and off ramps, pedestrian crossings and traffic lights, three overpasses and the installation of noise attenuation barriers.

Key highway projects are being planned for Indonesia. The Indonesian firm Wijaya Karya (Wika) will work on three toll road projects in the country worth just over US$922 million. The projects are for the Samarinda-Balikpapan, Manado-Bitung and the Soreang-Pasirkoja routes. The firm hopes to fund the projects using a mix of state and private funding. Meanwhile the toll road operator Jasa Marga is working on securing the funding it needs to finance work on the Kertosono-Ngawi-Solo section of the Transjava Hig

Bidding has been closed for the contract to construct the Toyo Tunnel in Colombia. Three offers for the project have been made. In all, eight firms are participating in the tendering, with six of the companies being from Colombia itself. The project is expected to cost some US$595 million. The new tunnel will improve connectivity between Medellin and Uraba and will run from Giraldo to Canasgordas. The tunnel will form part of the Uraba road which runs through the mountain range at 1,500m.

Bankrupt Australian highway management firm BrisConnections is selling its 6.7km AirportlinkM7 toll road in Brisbane three years after the highway opened, according to a report by the Financial Review. Macquarie Capital and Fort Street are acting as financial advisers and PBB Advisory is the receiver. Transurban, which paid A$7.05 billion for Brisbane's five other toll roads last year, is seen as the likeliest buyer, with indicative bidding starting early this month for closure of a deal early next year, ac

Interest is proving to be strong in the new Agua Negra Tunnel project which will link Argentina with Chile. A number of Chinese contractors are showing strong interest in the project.

Tests carried out by VTI, the Swedish National Road and Transport Research Institute, involving motorcycles and crash barriers have shown that a plastic covering on the sharp edge at the top of the barrier can help save the lives of motorcyclists.

Road designers and local authorities are getting much better at integrating roads for vehicles and cycle paths, tracks and lanes. But sometimes cyclist must take their chances on riding on a road with no designated cycle ways. Caution is essential for both cyclists and vehicle drivers, but in the end it will be the cyclist who is most likely to come off the worst in any crash. So why tempt fate, as the following news story and videos show.

Further delays to the planned Fehmarn Belt Fixed Link between Germany and Denmark appear likely because of objections to the project during the planning stages, Danish media reported. Government authorities in the German state of Schleswig-Holstein indicated that permission for the project, which focusses on a 17km immersed road and rail tunnel, will probably be given in 2017, and not next year as previously believed. German authorities have received about 3,100 objections to the project that has rise

The Indonesian government is looking to spend around US$385 million of a major loan from China to construct three toll roads in the islands of Kalimantan, Sulawesi and Java. The three toll roads are Cileunyi-Sumedang-Dawuan (Cisumdawu) of West Java, Balikpapan-Samarinda of East Kalimantan and Manado-Bitung of North Sulawesi. China recently announced it would lend Indonesia around $1.5 billion for infrastructure projects.

Mexico’s secretary of communications and transport, Gerardo Ruiz Esparza, has confirmed that the second level of Mexico City-to-Tlalpan interconnection road project could be completed by December. This stretch is part of the Mexico-Cuernavaca motorway improvement project, included in plans by the federal government and the capital's local authority to expand the access to Mexico City. The initiative is costing around US$1.68 billion and encompasses other motorways such as Mexico-Puebla, Mexico-Pachuca