News

In Sri Lanka work is planned for a major highway upgrade project. The work will see a 151.3km stretch of the A5 highway being widened and improved in a deal worth some US$140 million. The work is being planned by Sri Lanka’s Government and is for the stretch of A5 between Badulla and Chenkaladi. Improvement work on the Peradeniya-Badulla section of the A5 highway has now been completed and this latest project is the next phase of the A5 upgrade. The project is being partly financed by the OPEC Fund for Inte

Work on a key bridge link in Vietnam is behind schedule and the construction team will have to speed up work. Delays have hit the project to build the Vam Cong Bridge, which will span the Hau River. The firms building the bridge, South Korean contractor, GS E&C and Hanshin E&C has been told by Vietnam's Transportation Ministry to accelerate construction efforts. The bridge is due for completion by September 2017. GS E&C and Hanshin E&C secured the bridge project in June 2013 and the work is worth some US$23

Norway’s new Hardanger Bridge is not carrying enough traffic according to the latest data available. According to the statistics for July 2014, some 3,500 vehicles/day crossed over the Hardanger Bridge (Hardangerbrua) in Norway. This was a notable increase from the 2,450 vehicles/day using the link in June 2014. This is higher than the normal volumes due to high levels of summer vacation traffic. However, it is not sufficiently high to hit the planned average of 1,950 vehicles/day for the whole year. The r

Standard & Poor (S&P) has given Orange County Transportation Agency’s (OCTA) SR91 link one of the highest ratings for managed highway lanes in the world. S&P’s upgraded the SR91 Express Lanes Toll Revenue Bonds to AA-. The bonds were issued last year to refund bonds that were issued in 2003 when OCTA acquired the SR91 Express Lanes project from the private consortium that developed the project under California’s prior P3 law. The 91 Express Lanes is a four-lane, 16km toll road built in the median of Califor

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Balfour Beatty’s UK construction business has been awarded the €94.45 million (£75 million) A63 Castle Street improvement scheme in Hull for the Highways Agency under an Early Contractor Involvement (ECI) design and build contract. The 1.5km scheme in the centre of the city in East Yorkshire, northern England will improve journey times for road users through conversion of a major interchange into a split level junction with a two-lane dual carriageway carrying east-west traffic below north-south traffic in

According to new figures obtained by the UK Institute of Advanced Motorists (IAM), male drivers between the ages of 20-30 were the most common group to be disqualified from driving in the 12 months between July 2013 and June 2014.

Road signs should spell out a clear message

Wacker Neuson, the Munich, Germany-based manufacturer of light and compact equipment has posted a clear profit increase in the second quarter of 2014, with revenue remaining at the same level as the previous year. The group posted new record revenue and earnings figures for the first six months of the year, and has confirmed its forecast for fiscal 2014.

What is thought to be the first private road in the UK for 100 years has been opened by a businessman in a bid to avoid the hour-long diversion around road works on the key route between the cities of Bristol and Bath, south-west England.

Interest has been strong for a Mexican highway contract. In all 13 companies are considering bidding for the Tuxpan-Tampico highway concession in Veracruz state, reports Business News Americas. Local firms Tradeco Infraestructura, OHL México, Mota Engil México, La Peninsular Compañía Constructora, Acciona Infraestructuras México and Coconal have all shown interest in the project. The contract is for a 106.6km highway, which will run from Tuxpan-Ozuluama and connect two of the country’s busiest Gulf Coast po

Rebuilding of the Interstate 69 highway in Indiana is now going ahead. The PPP project is for the 33.6km I-69 Section 5 contract. Spanish company Isolux Infrastructure is working on the project with much of the funding coming through its agreement with Infra-PSP Canada. The deal sees Infra-PSP Canada taking 49% of the project’s equity. The deal is of note as the firm is an affiliate of Canada’s Public Pension Board and this is the first time an international public pension operation has directly invested in

Spanish contractor Sacyr is carrying out key contracts to construct new connections in Chilean capital Santiago. The work is worth some US$255 million in all. The larger of the two projects is for the second phase of the Plan Santiago Centro Oriente scheme, which includes rebuilding the Perez Zujovic roundabout and building a section of tunnel. The company is already working on phase one of the Plan Santiago Centro Oriente scheme. Meanwhile the smaller project is for upgrade works to the connection between

Construction company Sogea-Satom will carry out the US$101 million contract to upgrade Cameroon’s West Doula highway. The firm is a subsidiary of French contractor Vinci. The work is for a 13km stretch of Cameroon’s RN3 National Road and will take 30 months to complete. The work is being financed by the French development agency (AFD). Sogea-Satom previously won a contract to build a bridge on the RN3 route.