News

Work has started on a new facility for BOMAG Americas in South Carolina. The groundbreaking ceremony was held in Ridgeway, at the future site of the firm’s new North American headquarters. The new facility will house spare parts warehousing and a machine assembly area along with office space. It is due for completion in October 2014, when BOMAG will begin the move from its current headquarters in Illinois.

This video clip from Australia shows how up close how an aged overpass can be removed quickly and efficiently, while minimising the disturbance to surrounding traffic or neighbouring properties.

The Asian Development Bank (ADB) is set to transfer the US$ 150 million second tranche of a loan for construction of Masally-Shorsulu highway in Azerbaijan. The first $250 million ADB loan tranche has already been sent, with the overall project cost set to reach $625 million. Azerbaijan will get a $100 million third ADB loan tranche in 2016, taking the Bank’s total loan investment in the new highway to $500 million.

The authorities in Paraguay have agreed a funding package with the Latin American Development Bank (CAF) for a series of infrastructure projects in the country. The funding comes in the shape of a US$222 million loan and this is the first time that the CAF has approved funding of this size for the country. This will provide partial funding for the Programme for the Improvement of Integration Corridors and Road Reconstruction.

Plans are underway in La Réunion for the construction of a new coastal road worth US$1.63 billion. The project has been contested by one failed bidder but is going ahead, despite opposition from the National Council for the Protection of Nature (CNPN).

A series of major project tenders are opening in Brazil. The Brazilian Government has announced five new road tenders to be launched in 2014. The highway sections run for a total distance of some 2,625km. This programme of works will lengthen the country’s highway network by some 2,282km, with the work costing an impressive US$7.39 billion in all.

Positive news comes from equipment auction specialists Ritchie Bros and IronPlanet. Ritchie Bros reports strong performance for its online construction machinery marketplace, EquipmentOne, in the first year since the service was set up. The service was initially launched in early 2013 and had a full commercial launch in April. The Marketplace already has hundreds of thousands of qualified members around the world. Sellers can make their own listings or work with Ritchie Bros to create listings including equ

In the United States, a US$1.4 billion transport package has been approved by the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors for funding highway interchanges, wider roads and new sidewalks in the Virginia state county.

The Zoomlion Group has opened a production site in Indaiatuba, Brazil for the manufacturing of concrete machinery and other lines of construction machinery. Christened Zoomlion CIFA Brazil, the Indaiatuba site, around 90km from San Paolo, has 22,000m² of production space and will be expected to produce more than 1,200 machines a year, divided between different production lines including truck mixers with 8-10m³ capacity, dosing and batching plants, concrete pumps and stationary booms.

In Serbia work on the Corridor 10 highway looks set to be completed as planned in 2016. Serbian roads company, Koridori Srbije, says that that the Corridor 10 motorway should be completed by the middle of 2016. The World Bank (WB) mission visited building sites on Corridor 10 and said that considerable progress has been made, with an additional 23% of works having been carried out in the last 18 month period. In 2014 alone, 50km of the route will be completed. Work is being carried out on 238 bridges, out o

Work is underway securing the finances for key highway projects in Brazil. The tender process for the US$1.72 billio Tamoios Highway project is now underway and the bids are due in mid-May 2014, according to Business News Americas. The project involves a 30 year concession package to operate and maintain the SP-99 Planalto and Serra stretches of the Tamoios highway, connecting the coastal cities of São José dos Campos and Caraguatatuba. The contract also involves 21.5km of road widening along the Serra stre