News

A cautiously optimistic report has been published by the European Construction Industry Federation (FIEC), which shows activity levels continue to fall. The FIEC’s recently released annual statistical report provides a comprehensive review of construction activity in Europe and shows business levels have improved slightly in some sectors. “The EU total construction output amounted to €1,208 billion in 2011, which represents a growth of 1.4% compared to 2010”, stated FIEC vice-president Jacques Huillard, in

English councils have been urged to protect the public on the roads by “whatever means is appropriate” after the first rise in road deaths in the country for eight years. Professor Stephen Glaister, director of the RAC Foundation, said data obtained by the Foundation under the Freedom of Information Act (FOI) showed there had been “no mass switch off” of speed cameras in England despite two years of Government road safety funding cuts. But Glaister fears an ageing national network of existing speed camera

The local authorities in Czech capital Prague say that the city's ring road project could be complete by 2016. Work is underway at present on the north-west section which includes the Blanka Tunnel. Plans are being prepared now for the north-east section. Construction work on the latter is expected to start in 2013 or 2014 and this is expected to cost in the region of €602 million. Two possible routes are being considered at present for the north-east ring road section.

Croatian national motorways company Hrvatske Autoceste (HAC) is receiving funding in the shape of a €100 million loan from Hypo Alpa Adria Bank and Hypo Alpa Adria International, from Klagenfurt in Austria. A guarantee for the loan is being supplied by the Croatian Government. The loan is approved over a five-year repayment period and with a 6.99% interest rate. Funding will be used for liquidity and regular payments to construction firms. The move increases HAC's gearing as it has so far borrowed €80 milli

Colas has won a five-year contract in partnership with Halcrow and Costain for Area 12 in the UK. The contract is for €73 million and is for some 1,200km of major roads and motorways in the counties of Yorkshire and North Lincolnshire. The company also has contracts for Area 10 and Area 14 in the north-west and north-east of England as well as Area 7 in the Midlands. In total these four contracts are worth €387 million and give Colas responsibility over 3,500km of major roads and motorways, equating to 32%

The innovative QBREAK electric car is to benefit from a sophisticated methanol fuel cell range extender. Development work is being carried out on the project by a consortium of Danish companies. The plan is to develop a novel, range-extended electric vehicle that uses biomethanol as a fuel source. TheModularEnergyCarrier concept (MECc) project has just been granted funding from the Danish government. The reworked electric car is expected to deliver high market potential due to a competitive price and specif

A total of US$2.42 billion is being invested in five high-speed road projects in China's Henan Province. The highways have a total length of 205km and construction work is already underway. Some $1.2 billion will be spent on the 108km road link between Dengfeng City and Weishi Expressway with a length of around 108km, while $377 million will be invested in a 37km road project connecting Wuxi Expressway and Yuntai Mountain. A further $242 million will be spent on a 22km road from Jiao Tong Expressway-Wen Cou

Work on several new highways being built in Slovakia as public-private partnerships (PPPs) will be delayed by six to 12 months. This means that the first sections of the Martin-Presov link will not open before 2011. The last section is expected to be completed in either late 2012 or early 2013.

Plans are in hand to build an 87km long highway in Italy, from Cassano Magnago, in the Province of Varese, through Lombardy and linking with Milan, Como, Lecco, Bergamo and Monza. Work on the highway should begin at the end of this year and is planned to be ready for use in time for Expo 2015. The new link is expected to cost €4.5 billion to build and will be constructed by the Italian highway operator Pedemontana Lombarda.

France and Belgium have now agreed on the bilateral exchange of information relating to motoring offences. The two countries now have reciprocal access to car registration files, enabling the authorities to punish offences committed in either country. Belgian drivers caught by speed cameras in France and French drivers caught speeding or running red lights in Belgium will be now face appropriate penalties. Since speed cameras were deployed in France, around one quarter of offences concern vehicles registere

A tender worth US$637.68million (ILS 2.50bn) was recently published by Israel National Roads Company (Ma'atz) for the construction of two bridges in the historic neighbourhood of Motza, near Jerusalem. The tender says the two 800-metre bridges will have three traffic lanes each. According to Ma'atz, construction work for the project is scheduled to begin in 2013. Once completed, the bridges will be connected directly with the Harel Tunnel.

Croatian consortium Konstruktor is starting discussions over the construction of the Bar-Boljari motorway in Montenegro with the country's government. Konstruktor won the tender with a bid of €2.77 billion for the project, which involves building 170km of highway. The Montenegrin government is securing funding of €1.74 billion, while the reminder will be secured by Konstrukotr. Work is expected to start in October 2009.