News

A major series of tenders will be released in Oman shortly. In all the tenders will be for some 1,300km of roads. The projects will be for new road links as well as for widening existing routes. One of the key projects is for work to turn the 715km Nizwa-Thumrait road into a dual carriageway. Other major projects include the 76km Al Buraimy-Safwan-Al Rawdah road, the 150km Metan-Al Hashman-Al Shasr road, the 200km Al Mazyunah-Sheit road, an upgrade to 33km of Ibri-Yankul road, 39km of Nizwa-Bahla road and u

Funding from South Korea will help finance work on a key road link for the Vietnamese city of Hanoi. The state-run Export-Import Bank (EXIM) of Korea will provide loans worth up to US$200 million to build the 17.85km road, which will connect Hanoi to a nearby industrial area. The four lane road will link the Nhon Trach industrial complex with Ho Chi Minh (HCM) City. The EximBank’s economic development cooperation fund is supplying the loans. In all the road project is likely to cost some $430 million, with

A series of new road projects are planned in Ethiopia. One key link will be for capital Addis Ababa. The city authorities are planning work on the road connecting the Inter-city bus terminal with the Lideta Church as well as on the road between St George Church and 18 Mazoria. The work will commence in October 2013 and will take a year to complete. The Road Fund and city authorities will require a budget of some US$397 million to build up to 113km of roads with asphalt surfaces in the 2013/2014 period.

Netherlands-based officer Egbert-Jan van Hasselt recently joined the TISPOL Council and holds firm views on road policing. The Netherlands has a comparatively good record on road safety due to factors including well-designed and maintained infrastructure and strong enforcement policies, although it faces challenges on a number of points, including the high percentage of through-traffic from foreign drivers using its network en-route to other destinations. Van Hasselt identified the importance of the partner

Nicaragua’s Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure has awarded the first of a series of contracts to upgrade the NIC 3 highway. The construction work will be carried out by a consortium comprising contractors Constructora Meco, CEMEX and Llansa Ingenieros. This first phase will be for a 34.4km section of the route while the second stretch will be 15.6km long. In all the work is expected to take 18 months to complete and is likely to cost around US$40 million. Financing is being provided by the Fund o

The Indonesian Public Works Ministry is funding the first phase of work on a new toll road using a Chinese loan. The US$106.4 million loan will fund work for the first section of the Cileunyi-Sumedang-Dawuan (Cisumdawu) section II toll road. The Indonesian Public Works Ministry is keen to use its own financing for much of the project, which includes a further five stages.

Plans are moving ahead for a new bridge to connect Singapore and Malaysia that will improve transport links. The project is being evaluated at present by the Malaysian and Singapore Governments. Should this project get the go-ahead, it will help improve traffic flow between Malaysia and Singapore. Two links connect Malaysia and Singapore at present but traffic volumes are increasing and the governments of both countries see the need to provide greater capacity. The new link will connect Changi in Singapore

A series of major road projects are planned for various parts of Russia that will improve connectivity. These include the Moscow-St Petersburg highway, work to the transportation system in the Rostov region and a new bridge over the Belaya River in Ufa. The tender process for the contract to build, maintain, repair, and operate a section of the Moscow- St Petersburg highway has been announced by Avtodor. The section is from the 334th to the 543th kilometre. The contract will call for the construction work t

A joint venture comprising BAM Nuttall and Morgan Sindall will carry out the 4km widening of the UK’s heavily congested A14 route. The €28.5 million (£24 million) project is being carried out for the Highways Agency to reduce journey times more reliable, improve safety and support proposed local development. Mott MacDonald will carry out the design work for the project. Junctions 7-9 of the A14 are highly congested at present due to a combination of heavy commuter traffic and the high percentage of HGVs car

Two Chinese firms are building a new road connection in East African nation Ethiopia. The 133km road will run from Mille to Kombolcha, through Bati. Shandong Highway is working on a 73km stretch of the route from Milla to Burka, while Zhongmei Engineering has the deal for the 60 stretch of road from Burka to Kombolcha. The project is being carried out for the Ethiopian Government and is being handled by the Ethiopian Roads Authority (ERA). Indian firm International Consultants & Technocrats (ICT) has a US$1

A group of seven banks is to fund the construction of the third Bosporus Bridge crossing in Turkish commercial centre Istanbul. A group of six Turkish banks, Garanti Bankasi, Halk Bankasi, Is Bankasi, Vakiflar Bankasi, Ziraat Bankasi, and Yapi Kredi Bankasi, is being joined by the Netherlands-based Garantibank International to provide the necessary US$2.3 billion of funding required for the project. A joint Italian-Turkish consortium comprising Astaldi and IC Ictas will build the bridge, which will reduce c

AECOM is starting work on its contract for Singapore’s North-South Expressway project. The US$15 million contract covers 21.4km section of the route. The contract is for consultancy work on the electrical and mechanical engineering aspects of the expressway project.

A report from the US-based research firm Freedonia suggests that demand for asphalt in the country looks set to increase 3.7%/year to 25.17 million tonnes in 2017. US demand for asphalt is expected to grow from the low levels in 2012 due to an increase in spending on highway and road construction, as well as building. However, the report suggests that asphalt demand in 2017 will not reach the levels seen in 2007. Rising use of recycled asphalt pavement (RAP) and a growth in the market for rehabilitating