Road Structures

Malaysia is planning a series of new hew highway construction projects that will commence in 2015. The Works Ministry of Malaysia has plans for seven new highway projects with a combined value of US$6.19 billion to begin in 2015. The projects include the Serdang-Kinrara-Putrajaya Highway (SKIP), the Duta-Ulu Kelang Expressway (DUKE) extension and the Sungai Besi-Ulu Kelang Elevated Expressway (SUKE). They also include the West Coast Expressway (WCE) from Banting to Taiping, the Damansara-Shah Alam Expresswa

An investment of nearly US$510 million is being planned in Bolivia for road building works. The country’s state-run road company, Administradora Boliviana de Carreteras (ABC), has plans in hand for a total of 32 road maintenance and construction projects in Santa Cruz department. In all these will stretch for some 5,773km. Of this, $291 million will be spent on 276km of new roads, including the Saavedra-Chane and Circunvalacion Mineros, Hardeman-Colonia Pairi and Rio Uruguaito-Santa Rosa de la Roca-San Igna

Belarus is boosting its transportation budget in a bid to develop its road and highway links. The country is increasing investment to US$1.06 billion during 2015, an increase of 40% from the budget for 2014. The budget will be spent on rebuilding existing highways as well as building new highway sections.

In the UK Mott MacDonald has been reappointed as support service provider by the Highways Agency (HA). The agreement covers the centralised maintenance depot terminal equipment (CMDTE) system. The consultancy will manage the on-going operation of the system which supports the HA’s emergency roadside telephones (ERT) placed along the motorway and trunk road network in England. CMDTE is the back office system that monitors and records faults with approximately 7500 ERTs. The project aims to maintain syste

In Bolivia three road tenders are now underway, part of a programme to upgrade the country’s network as only 10% of its road links are paved at present. The country’s road authority, ABC, opened these tenders which are intended to develop transport links in Bolivia’s Cochabamba and Santa Cruz departments. One project is for a US$85 million highway connecting Yapacani with Ichilo. Another project is for the $61 million 31km road link between Ivirgarzama and Puente Chimoré. The third tender is for the $69 mil

The Algerian Ministry for Public Works is calling for work on the 100km Bejaia to El Adjiba highway to be speeded up. Works on various bridges and junctions along the route are said to behind schedule. CRCC Sapta is constructing 17 of the bridges and junctions and other structures and ministry has said that the firm’s contract may be revised unless Minister the work is speeded up. The contractor has faced a series of technical issues that have caused delays to its work on the route. The quality of the work

The Nepalese Government is opening up an expression of interest process that will generate a shortlist to carry out the Kathmandhu-Terai/Madhes Fast Track Road project. The new Kathmandhu-Nijgadh expressway will run for 76km and its construction will involve building a twin tube tunnel 1.35km long and eight bridges. The project will be carried out under the PPP model and construction costs are likely to be in the region of US$844 million. Nepal may well look to neighbouring China for at least a portion of t

Poland is planning to enter seven transport projects to the Connecting Europe Programme, with these having a combined value close to €2.86 billion. Among the planned projects are the S61 express road between the Lithuanian border and Augustow. Meanwhile STRABAG and Budimex have formed a consortium that will construct a 41km stretch of the A4 highway in Poland. The section of the route runs from Rzeszów to Jarosław, in south-eastern Poland. The project is expected to take 14 months to complete and the contra

A new tunnel will connect the coastal town of Rize with Erzurum in Turkey. The 14.3km Ovit Tunnel is costing US$270.3 million to construct and is due to open to traffic in 2016. Opening the tunnel will reduce the journey time between Rize and Erzurum as the new route will cut the distance from 250-200km. The new route will also provide greater safety for drivers, particularly in winter time as conditions along the existing route can be difficult. So far around 12km of the tunnel has been constructed. Meanw

The Colombian Government is looking to cancel the contract for the construction of the La Linea tunnel. This project has already been beset by an array of problems since it was first conceived and now looks set to be further delayed. Work was supposed to have been 20% complete by March 2014, however a series of delays had put the project far behind schedule and by March 2014, only 12% of the work had been carried out. In June 2014, the project was supposed to be 50% complete, but work was in fact just 14% h