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Some cultures value face-saving over outright confrontation. The placing of infrastructure, be they roads, railways or buildings, often requires compromise on the part of all concerned – developers, highway designers, rail consultants and, not least, people who own the land. There may be no greater monument to this type of compromise than in the Japanese city of Osaka where the Hanshin Expressway meets the Gateway Tower building. Did we say ‘meet’? Not quite, as the highway does not touch the 16-storey off

The Venezuela Government has plans in hand for 52 road projects that will commence during 2015. Close to US$42 billion will be invested in infrastructure projects. The Land Transport Ministry will invest $315 million and USD 911mn will be spent on road repairs and upgrades alone. Several major road projects are due to get underway and include the widening of the Valle-Coche highway and the La Rinconada-Caricuao and San Diego-Valencia tunnels. They also include the extension of the Francisco Fajardo road and

Plans are underway for the Warsaw Ring Road project in Poland. Italian contractor Astaldi made the lowest offer for the project at €289.95 million. The work calls for a 4.6km section of the route to be constructed, including what will be Poland’s longest road tunnel once complete. There have been 10 bidders for the tender, being handled by the Polish road authority GDDKiA. Other bidders included the Porr Polska consortium and a construction consortium comprising contractors Budimex and Strabag.

Data shows that South Africa needs to boost its road safety and cut the rate of deaths and injuries on its network. The country has recorded some 16,000 fatalities from road crashes/year. There were 1,100 fatalities on the country’s roads during December 2014 on its own. The authorities are now looking to improvements in road safety made in Europe, with a view to implementing measures that will cut the death toll on South Africa’s roads. With enforcement of laws on speeding and driving under the influence h

The Mexican Government plans to invest some US$13.72 billion in all into 46 motorway construction projects. Work on these new routes will be carried out during the current administration. The new motorways come in addition to the 85 motorways operating in 2012, when the current administration entered office. So far 13 new motorways have been built with funds of close to $3.77 billion. The 1.4km Distribuidor Vial Palmira motorway was recently opened inaugurated while the 10 lane Cuernavaca beltway project ha

In Vietnam work is now underway on the Bach Dang Bridge project. Costing some US$356.5 million, the new bridge will connect the Ha Noi-Hai Phong Highway and the Ha Long-Hai Phong Highway. The 25m wide bridge will measure some 3km long in all, spanning the Bach Dang River. Much of the funding for this construction project is being supplied by Quang Ninh Province People's Committee. The project is being carried out under the build-operate-transfer model by the Bach Dang Bridge BOT, in collaboration with SE of

The go ahead has been given for a major highway project in China’s Yunnan Province. The US$3.25 billion highway will connect Shangri-La and Lijiang. The project has received approval from the National Development and Reform Commission of China. In addition, approval has also been given by the National Development and Reform Commission for the $471.8 million Zhejiang section of the highway connecting Hangzhou with Nanjing.

There are tight squeezes and there are tight squeezes. But this highway, in the Black Hills region of South Dakota state in the United States, was never meant for a Greyhound bus. It’s easy does it, as the youtube video shows just what an experienced driver can do. The camera captures the painstaking, and slow, effort of the driver as he threads his American behemoth through the eye of a needle, in this case a tunnel along the Needles Highway.

Work is moving ahead in Bangladesh on a series of key bridge projects. The country’s largest infrastructure project is for the US$2.96 billion Padma Bridge, which is underway currently. The team working on the project will source a high percentage of construction materials locally. The Institution of Engineers, Bangladesh (IEB) has said that local firms will get business worth from $257.4-$386.1 million. Local firms are supplying cement and sand, although they are only supplying reinforcing steel and not st

Data from the A9 route in Scotland shows that the installation of average speed camera technology is helping cut crashes. This is Europe’s longest single enforcement scheme, with the technology having been installed along a 220km stretch of the A9 in Scotland. Figures from the route show that the average speed enforcement scheme, which uses SPECS technology supplied by Vysionics, is helping cut casualties while improving journey reliability and driver behaviour.

The police in England and Wales are introducing roadside tests to check whether drivers are under the influence of drugs. The crackdown on drug driving will see recently approved testing kits being used by traffic officers for enforcement purposes. Concern has been expressed following recent studies showing large numbers of drivers get behind the wheel while under the influence of drugs. Young male drivers pose a particular risk for getting behind the wheel while under the influence of drugs. There are also

Work on four new road projects in India will be carried out by Spanish contractor Isolux Corsan. In all the work is worth US$306.5 million. The 130km stretch of road connecting Talcher with Chandikole in Odisha is costing $124.9 million to construct. One stretch is for a 160km road between Phalodi and Jaisalmer in Rajasthan. The other two sections of road being built are in Assam.