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Algeria is upgrading National Road One (RN01) so that it will become the North-South motorway. The project involves widening and improving the route as well as adding more lanes. The work forms part of the 2010-2014 five-year plan and involves seven local and national companies. It involves doubling the number of lanes for the 103km stretch between the Laghouat and Ghardaïa regions. The work is costing US$116 million. Work on the first 51km section will be completed at the end of August 2015, while the seco

Colombia’s Villavicencio-Yopal highway will be built by the consortium Estructura Plural Arauca (Conecol-Episol). The package of works was awarded by Colombia's National Infrastructure Agency (ANI). This deal forms part of the group of tenders for the second tranche of Colombia’s 4G roads programme. All nine of the 4G roads projects will be awarded by 15th July 2015. Under the Villavicencio-Yopal highway concession, the consortium must develop 261km of the route with an investment of US$741.9 million. The n

A joint venture featuring John Holland, Samsung C&T and Leighton Contractors (Leighton) has secured a deal to build and design Sydney’s M4 East motorway. The M4 East forms part of a project to build the WestConnex road tunnel, completion of which is expected in 2023. The M4 East is planned to be ready in 2019, while the WestConnex road tunnel is the biggest transport infrastructure of its kind in Australia. The deal won by the joint venture partners is valued at US$2.1 billion. The WestConnex project is pla

Several major infrastructure projects are being prioritised in Indonesia by the country's government. In all 10 infrastructure projects are seen as so crucial for the country’s development that they will be pushed forward, so that work can commence during 2015. Because of the importance of the projects, companies may be appointed directly, instead of a formal tender being issued. The Indonesian Government is setting up a framework to provide legal protection for those ministries trying to speed up infrastru

A new transport pan for the Indian city of Hyderabad will see a series of flyovers being built. In all 20 new multi-level flyovers are planned for Hyderabad, capital of India’s Telengana State. The work will form part of the US$635.5 million Strategic Road Development Plan (SRDP) for Hyderabad. The work will be carried out under a design, build, maintain and transfer model and the cost includes carrying out the civils works as well as land acquisition. Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) has prop

A series of transportation projects are in hand for Mindanao in the Philippines. The Philippines' Mindanao Development Authority (MinDA) has said that the Mindanao Development Corridors' major infrastructure component will cost some US$14.02 billion in all. Of the total, some $5.6 billion will be spent on airports, seaports and roads. MinDA intends that these projects will get underway out in the next two years, with work planned for completion in five years. A new bridge has been proposed that will conne

The Tanzanian Government is planning to invest in transportation in capital Dar es Salam. Some US$1.92 billion will be invested in building new rods and developing a new public transit system. The aim of this plan is to cut congestion in the city, which has a population of 4 million and suffers extensive traffic delays at peak periods at present. New roads, bridges and flyovers are to be constructed as part of the plan.

A financing deal has been signed for a series of major road projects in Sri Lanka. A second loan facility worth US$107 million has been agreed between the Sri Lankan Government and the Asian Development Bank (ADB). This loan facility will be used to finance road upgrade projects in Sabaragamuwa Province, North Western Province, Western Province, North Central Province and Central Province. This loan forms part of the $800 million Integrated Road Investment Programme planned by the Sri Lankan Government. The

After several years of steady gains in road safety, France has seen a decline in 2014. Figures show that offences increased by 17% in 2014, with the fatality rate increasing 3.5% to 3,384 deaths in all. Injuries caused by road crashes increased by 2.4% meanwhile. Speeding and drunk driving were cited as the biggest factors in crashes in France. The only classes of road user not to see increases in road fatalities were motorcyclists and truck drivers. It is of note that 21% of the 1,663 car drivers killed in

New Zealand is bucking the trend worldwide on improving road safety with an increase in crashes on its roads. The country saw 5.7 road deaths/100,000 people in 2014 according to the International Road Traffic and Accident Database, an increase of 16.1% from the previous year. This is the largest increase in the 28 countries surveyed, and largely reverses a 17% reduction from the previous year. The death toll on New Zealand’s roads so far in 2015 is 134, compared to 123 and 100 in the comparable periods of 2

Montenegro is ensuring it has sound financing in place for the new Bar-Boljare highway that will link it with Serbia. The country has a €687 million loan in place for the project that was provided by China's Exim Bank. The country’s Ministry of Finance is setting out a strategy that will protect it from risk. The loan was provided (in US$) for a 20 year repayment period, with a grace period of six years. However Montenegro’s Ministry of Finance is taking steps to prevent any future currency fluctuations fro

In Mexico the tender process is being developed for a major new highway project. The US$466.5 million highway project will be built under the PPP model. The 83km route will provide an improved connection between Las Varas, Bucerias and Puerto Vallarta. The country's Secretariat of Communications and Transport (SCT) is preparing the tender at present. Mexican construction firm Impulsora del Desarrollo y el Empleo en America Latina (IDEAL) initially put forward a proposal for the project, which looks likely t

Children should have the right of a safe journey to and from school, as part of a wider strategy to build safe, healthy and liveable communities, recommends a new report from UNICEF and the FIA Foundation. The report, ‘Safe to Learn’, was published to mark the 3rd United Nations Global Road Safety Week, which has a theme of child safety. The report was launched at an event at the World Bank in Washington DC by Zoleka Mandela, a global road safety activist, bereaved mother of a road traffic victim, and gran