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A STUDY of highway construction costs in eight European countries highlights Austria as the most expensive. The report says that highways in Austria cost €12.87 million/km. The next most expensive country is Hungary at €11.21 million/km, followed by Slovakia at €9.56 million/km and then the Czech Republic at €8.86 million/km.

Kenya's highway network is to benefit from a tie-up with the Iranian Government. The new Rumuruti-Maralal road will be built using funding sourced by the Iranian Government. The 121km road is expected to cost some US$100 million.

The Inter-American Development Bank (IADB) is providing funding worth US$1.14 billion for construction work on the north section of Sao Paulo's orbital highway. The Brazilian city is at the heart of the country's growing economy and traffic congestion has been a problem in the area. The work will commence in 2011 and is due for completion in 2014. The local authorities will need to find a further $1.82 billion however.

The Indian Government has granted approvals for 32 highway construction projects during the 2009-2010 financial year. These routes have a total length of 3,600km but this falls below the targeted 126 projects stretching for a total of 11,928km in total for this time period. For the 2010-2011 financial year, the plan is to build highways totalling in excess of 15,000km.

Work is being planned on Melbourne's M80 ring road upgrade. This A$2.25 billion project is intended to cut congestion at peak periods, boost safety and reduce journey times for commuters and freight traffic. The project is due for completion in 2013 with some of the work already underway. The work includes an extra lane being installed on either side of the road between Sunshine Avenue and Furlong Road as well as widening of the freeway bridge over Furlong Road.

Concerns are being expressed in Australia that upgrades to the road system in Sydney will be delayed. The improvements to the F3 and M4 East to M2 extension are now likely to start in 2026 and the M2 to M4 East tunnel project are expected to commence in 2036.

Western Australia has set a budget of US$998.52 million (A$1.2 billion) for highway work during the next fiscal year, 2010/2011. Major projects being targeted include the Great Eastern highway, the Roa highway and the Dampier highway. Other important links being tackled will be the Alexander Drive-Reid Highway interchange and the Coalfields Highway upgrade.

Plans are now in hand to upgrade and straighten the Bruce Highway over the Cardwell Ridge in Australia. The US$102.45 million (A$115 million) project will be handled jointly by a team comprising consulting engineer, SMEC Australia and Abigroup Contractors.

The authorities in the Australian state of Victoria have carried out projects worth some US$2.75 billion (A$3.1 billion). This includes 1,250 road safety projects in all, such as improvement to an intersection between Airfield Road and Princes Highway East at Traralgon West and upgrades along Bloomfield Road from Nilma to Crossover to prevent run-off-road accidents. Upgrades are also being made to provide run-off-road treatments including guard fences, linemarking, powerpole relocation, shoulder sealing, tr

Work is now underway on India’s Rohtang tunnel project, located in Himachal Pradesh. The 9km long tunnel is expected to cost US$365.75 million and with work having just started, is due for completion before 2015. The project was first suggested back in 1983 but it has taken until now for the work to get underway. When complete the link will reduce the travel distance between the Lahaul Valley and the green Kullu Valley by 46km. The link will improve India’s transport connections to China. The 11m wide link

With increased demand from exhibitors keen to show their products at bauma China, the show organisers are making additional space available at the outdoor exhibition site. This move allows the show organisers to boost the amount of space that the Shanghai New International Expo Center (SNIEC) has for bauma China 2010 by 10,000m2.

Two new roads are now being built in Mozambique by Portuguese firm Mota Engil Engenharia. The total package is worth some US$148 million (€116 million). These two roads are the latest in a series of contracts Mota Engil Engenharia has won in Mozambique during 2010. The company is already carrying out some €165 million of work on road, bridge and other infrastructure projects.

Finnish contractor Pöyry is starting work on a road inspection programme in Northern Argentina . The firm was awarded the €1 million contract to inspect works on provincial road #28 in Argentina by the Road Infrastructure National Programme. Pöyry is carrying out this Inter-American Development Bank financed project in partnership with local company IATASA and the technical services will be provided over a 36 month period.