Road Structures

The construction of the Marão road tunnel in Portugal will be resumed in the first half of 2014 – ending a two-year suspension of works due to the financial constraints of the winning Somague-led build consortium.

Banks, builders, pension funds and Colombian government officers are discussing plans to finance around 40 new road concessions worth a combined US$23.86 billion (COP 47 trillion). According to market reports, the winners of these concessions will cover around 25% of their final cost. These funds will be paid in the first two years of each project and the winning firms will look to recoup their investment through road tolls. Banks will cover 30% of the cost via 12-18 year loans. The national development ban

A 17.5km undersea tunnel may be built to link Karimum Island in Sumatra's Riau and Kukup in Johor's Pontian (Malaysia). A memorandum of understanding (MoU) has been sealed by Pelalawan Regency of Indonesia's Riau Province and University Teknologi Malaysia (UTM) to study the tunnel’s feasibility. The Johor-Riau undersea tunnel link is expected to cost US$4.52 billion (MYR 15 billion). The build figure would be cheaper than an earlier proposal to construct the Dumai (Indonesia)-Malacca (Malaysia) bridge w

Road construction projects worth around US$335 million (ETB 6.5 billion) combined have been awarded by the Ethiopian Roads Authority (ERA) to three Chinese companies, as part of the fourth Road Sector Development Programme. According to a Fortune report, a $25.04 million (ETB 485 million) contract was awarded to China Railway Seventh Group Co for building a 44km long road in Zagora, and five 30m bridges. Another company, China Railway No.3 Engineering Group Co, secured a $72.3 million (ETB 1.4 billion) dea

A just released video shows the dramatic implosion of a Rio de Janeiro viaduct as part of the Brazilian city’s preparatory works for the 2016 Olympic Games. Fábio Bruno Construções (FBC), the company behind the blast, shot the seven-minute film in November 2013 to illustrate what happens behind the scenes on this kind of project. The film illustrates how FBC expertly used explosives to simply drop the viaduct down a level in a controlled and pre-determined manner.

Cement manufacturers are launching projects to install new cement works in Morocco despite poor market conditions. The CEO of Ciments du Maroc, Mohamed Chaibi, believes that improvements in current demand are temporary, while Dominique Drouet, chairman of the board of directors at Holcim is reprted as anticipating a 12% drop in activity in the cement industry at the end of 2013 and expecting the decline to continue in 2014. A cement works with a production capacity of 1 million tonnes costs an average

Cement manufacturers are launching projects to install new cement works in Morocco despite poor market conditions. The CEO of Ciments du Maroc, Mohamed Chaibi, believes that improvements in current demand are temporary, while Dominique Drouet, chairman of the board of directors at Holcim is reprted as anticipating a 12% drop in activity in the cement industry at the end of 2013 and expecting the decline to continue in 2014. A cement works with a production capacity of 1 million tonnes costs an average

Paraguay’s Ministry of Public Works and Communications (MOPC) is this year said to be planning to invest US$500 million in the South American country’s roads. The figure is said to be part of a proposed infrastructure investment of $7.66 billion for the period 2013-2016. Among the 2014 road projects will be the estimated $84.46 million repair of Route 8 -72.9kms – put out to tender by the MOPC in December 2013. All bids must be submitted on 29 January 2014. Route number 9 -Transchaco- between Mariscal Est

A Portuguese contractor is now commencing work on a new highway in Venezuela. The US$4.76 billion project is being handled by contractor Teixeira Duarte. The highway work is for a new link from la Guaira to capital Caracas. The Caracas–La Guaira highway connects capital Caracas, to the port city of La Guaira, capital of Vargas state, as well as Simón Bolívar International Airport. The coastal link has had some technical issues and new sections have had to be constructed.

Two Chinese construction firms are keen to build Bulgaria’s Cherno More highway. The highway runs close to the country’s Black Sea Coast and will connect the cities of Varna and Burgas when it is complete. The project is just one of several in Central and Eastern Europe that will receive a portion of the €10 billion cooperation credit line proposed by China for the region. The 103km Cherno More highway will be one section of the Pan-European Corridor VIII and will connect with the Hemus highway at Varna and