Road Structures

A key stretch of the D3 highway in Slovakia will open in the third quarter of 2017. This timescale represents a delay however as the section of road was originally planned to open in the second quarter of 2017. The 4.25km section runs from Zilina Strazov to Zilina Brodno and is costing close to €306 million to construct, with most of the funding being supplied by EU sources. This stretch of the highway is both complex and challenging as it includes a 2.2km section of tunnel as well as bridge over the the Hr

Work is due to commence shortly on a major highway project in the UAE. Costing in excess of US$136 million the Tripoli Roads Project is being managed by Dubai's Roads and Transport Authority (RTA). The 12km stretch of highway connects the Sheikh Mohammad bin Zayed Road with the Emirates Road and will be widened to boost capacity and cut congestion at peak periods. In addition a 5.3km stretch of road will also be built from the Academic City to the Emirates Road, again with the intention of reducing peak per

Chinese contractor China Roads and Bridges Company (CRBC) is spending €194 million to construct a key stretch of Montenegro’s Bar-Boljare highway during 2017. The Exim Bank in China is providing a loan facility worth €889.3 million to Montenegro’s Government to pay for the project. The loan is being provided over a 20-year period. This key stretch of the Bar-Boljare highway is 40km long and presents many technical challenges as it is one of the most complex sections of the route. This stretch will include 1

Argentina is planning two new highway projects to widen and improve key sections of Route 40 and Route 33. A US$291 million project will upgrade a stretch of the existing Route 40 to highway status. The two year project will see the widening of the road between Mendoza and San Juan and the construction work will start in the third quarter of 2017. Argentina’s Transport Ministry has said that the project will be funded by the Federal Government. A second stretch of Route 40 will also be widened and upgraded

Brokk is boosting its range of demolition equipment with the purchase of fellow Scandinavian firm Aquajet. Brokk is a leading manufacturer of remote-controlled demolition machines and its recent acquisition of Aquajet Systems will widen its range of products available. Aquajet is a leading manufacturer of hydrodemolition robots.

Funding has been sourced to pay for widening work on Italy’s important A4 Autostrade. The section from Venice to Trieste will benefit from a finance package worth €600 million from the European Investment Bank (EIB) and the Italian bank Cassa Depositi e Prestiti (CDP). The funding will be supplied to Autovie Venete, the Italian motorway concession firm. This will pay for the construction of third lanes for the highway in either direction, helping boost capacity. The route has been identified as being strate

Nepal’s Kathmandu-Tarai highway now looks likely to be built under an engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contract. This is a revision from the build-own-operate-transfer (BOOT) model previously suggested. Nepal's Ministry of Physical Infrastructure and Transport has announced the change for the project, which had an estimated cost of US$1.04 billion when put forward in 2015. The detailed project report (DPR) for the highway is likely to be set out by consortium, from India. The Nepalese Governm

Brazilian contractor Odebrecht is facing serious issues with regards to projects in Colombia and Peru. In Colombia the contract to build the Ruta del Sol II highway, at present 54% complete, is being terminated. Odebrecht is one of the partners in the The Consorcio Estructura Plural Promesa de Sociedad Futura Concesionaria Ruta del Sol consortium that was carrying out the contract. The consortium partners have also agreed not to claim for any compensation. In Peru meanwhile there is increasing pressure

Approval has been given for the construction of a new road tunnel in the German town of Starnberg. The €162 million road tunnel project is intended to cut congestion in the town centre but has been the subject of some controversy. The German Federal Government has agreed to a portion of the project’s costs, with the remainder coming from the Bavarian State as well as the local government. Starnberg, located some 30km south west of Bavaria’s capital Munich, is reputed to be the wealthiest town in Germany, so