News

The US state of Oregon’s new pay-by-the-mile road usage charge program, OReGO, took a step forward last month.

User-pays is crystallising as the preferred option by governments and taxpayers around the world, said Jack Opiola, managing partner of international road usage charging consultancy, D’Artagnan Consulting. Opiola, who chaired a session at the inaugural IRF - Roads Australia Regional Conference for Asia and Australasia in Sydney earlier this month, has been working with several US states which are wrestling with the ‘who pays’ issue. “Some states are propping up their transportation funding with portio

Foreign road users could be paying up to €130 (US$147) a year for using Germany's autobahn motorways starting in 2016. The plan was given the go-ahead by the German government last October but implementation could be delayed if it faces a legal challenge by European member states. Bavarian state transport minister Alexander Dobrindt said he was convinced that the draft law does not discriminate against foreign motorists, an issue if the law were to be challenged in any European court. He called the infras

An improved situation with regard to road safety has been noted in the UAE. The road crash rate for 2014 was 6.2% lower than for 2013. There were 4,806 crashes in 2014, causing 7,487 injuries and 712 deaths. However insurance payouts from crashes rose by 11% to a total of US$1.09 billion for 2014 compared with the previous year.

A study reveals construction sector worries about public procurement practice in Poland. The study was commissioned by the Polish Ministry of Infrastructure and Development. Ulrich Paetzold, director general of FIEC, the European Construction Industry Federation commented that the study on how 'to implement intervention priorities as foreseen by the National Development Strategy 2020', “…confirms yet again some of the fundamental problems repeatedly stressed over several years by contractors and consulting

Discussions have been held between Brazil and Paraguay over the plans to build a new bridge between the countries. Work carried out by Construbase-Paulitec was reviewed by officials from the countries at an event held recently in Brasilia. Previous plans for work to start on the bridge had to be put on hold due to financing problems in Brazil. Construction work on the bridge looks set to recommence in August 2015 however.

Strong interest is being shown in a major highway project in Slovakia. The tender process is attracting a series of bidders for what will be Slovakia’s largest ever highway contract. The project is expected to be worth some €4.53 billion in all and involves the construction of a bypass around capital Bratislava. A series of major firms are interested in the bidding including China Communications Construction Company (CCCC), a consortium headed by VINCI Concessions and a consortium comprised of Bouygues Tra

OHL Mexico, a subsidiary of Spanish construction firm OHL, has confirmed it will bid for the construction and operation contract for Mexico’s La Raza-Indios Verdes-Santa Clara motorway. The 9.5km road worth around US$364 million will be let as a public-private partnership under the federal government’s National Infrastructure Programme, Mexico’s El Economista newspaper reported. A total of 14 companies are interested in the project, including Pinfra, Ideal, Prodemex, China Harbour Engineering Mexico

Work on Vietnam’s 3.1km Phuoc Khanh cable stayed bridge will start in August after a deal was signed with the government in June. The contract was signed by the Vietnam Expressway Corporation and a consortium made up of Japanese contractor Sumitomo Mitsui and local partner Civil Engineering Construction Corporation (Cienco 4). The bridge is part of the 57km Ben Luc-Long Thanh Expressway project running through Long An Province, Ho Chi Minh City and Dong Nai province in southern Vietnam. The highway will a

Wood you ride these? The Igorot tribe in the Philippines do Possibly the most eco-friendly bicycle is to be found in the Philippines, and they race them once a year, reaching speeds of nearly 40kph downhill – with no brakes. The bicycles are made entirely of wood, but the beauty is in the carving. Each cycle is a unique ornate cycle – hand-carved by its owner, a member of the Igorot tribe. The cycle race gathering is held in the town of Batad in the mountains of Luzon, the Philippines largest and m

The Polish road and motorways authority GDDKiA plans to award a series of maintenance contracts to private operators up to the end of 2017. An additional €482.23 million will be allocated through outsourcing during the period. The contracts will be for an average of five years, and payment will be subject to the quality of the service delivered. Currently 1,219km of roads and motorways are maintained by private operators, with the total value of contracts being worth around €265.23 million. According to cal

Iterchimica, a leading international player in the field of additives for asphalt is appointing Vito Gamberale as chairman of the board. The move is a strategic one intended to broaden the firm’s coverage worldwide, with Gamberale also having bought a share of the business and with the extra funding helping develop the business. Iterchimica was founded in 1967 by Gabriele Giannattasio, who is now leading the company with his son Alessandro and his daughters Mariella and Federica. Gamberale sees in the ma

Eiffage has won a contract to restructure the Quai d’Ivry interchange on the Paris ring road. Eiffage’s Public Works division picked up the €48 million deal within Paris’s 13th arrondissement. The 40-month contract was awarded by Paris’s development agency SEMAPA -- Société d’Etude, de Maitrise d’Ouvrage et d’Aménagement Parisienne. Eiffage said in a statement that the contract involves “every area of expertise offered by the Public Works division, including civil engineering, steel construction an

Investment bank Goldman Sachs will soon be sending out expressions of interest for backers to finance Australia’s biggest road deal, the three-stage WestConnex project to be rollout by the New South Wales government. According to a report by The Australian newspaper, initially around US$1.17 billion will be needed for the first phase of the Sydney toll road project. The first phase will likely cost between nearly $2.35 billion and $3.9 billion. Total cost of all three phases over 10 years could be as

Sometimes you need a sense of humour to complete a task. Sometimes that sense of humour can overstep the mark and not everyone will see the joke, as these five road construction site pictures show. Here are five things that construction crews should not do.