Road Structures

Colombia's fiscal policy council Confis has approved more than US$700 million of funding for the construction of the 31.8km road connecting Mulalo and Loboguerrero in Valle del Cauca. Following the fiscal approval, Treasury minister Mauricio Cardenas has given the green light to the project which will benefit over 147,000 people and create 4,773 jobs. In total, Confis has approved $2.75 billion (COP 5.3 trillion) for infrastructure projects. Some of the sum will also be invested in the connection between C

The Central American Bank for Economic Integration (CABEI) is providing a US$400 million loan to Guatemala for rural road construction. This follows on from a $200 million loan being provided to Guatemala by the World Bank and a $237 million loan from the IADB. The Guatemalan Government is also working on upgrading CA9 Norte highway to make it reach Mayuelas completing an 89km extension at a cost of $240 million. The authorities also have plans to replace 60-70 bridges with new structures.

US Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx has revealed that a Transportation Infrastructure Finance Innovation Act (TIFIA) loan worth US$474 million will help pay for construction of the replacement for the current Goethals Bridge that connects Elizabeth, New Jersey with Staten Island, New York. The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey (PANYNJ), which operates the bridge, estimates that more than $33 billion in regional goods passes across the bridge each year. An average of 74,000 vehicles/day cross t

The Serbian Government is considering a loan from China’s Export-Import Bank, which would pay for the construction of the E-763 highway. The bank looks set to give its approval for the €223 million loan, which would pay for 90% of the construction work for the E-763, or Obrenovac-Ljig, highway. The loan would be approved over a 20 year repayment period and a five year grace period at the fixed rate of 2.5%/year. Meanwhile tendering will open for completion works on Serbia’s Pirot-Dimitrovgrad highway unti

Studies for the proposed Brussels Ring Road will receive EU support. Co-financing worth some €1 million from the EU’s TEN-T Programme will help pay for a study to optimise the Brussels Ring Road and improve its traffic flow and safety. The Belgian authorities will pay the remaining €1 million for the study. The main aim of this study is to try and separate local and transit traffic, without extending the existing road infrastructure.

A consortium led by the European construction group Strabag has signed the €178 million contract to build the 10.4km long section of the R2 expressway between Pstruša and Kriván in Slovakia. The R2 expressway runs through the valley of the Slatina River in central Slovakia and links the cities of Pstruša and Kriván. “After years of restraint in public-sector expenditures, the Slovak construction industry is again beginning to recover. We are bidding for several large contracts that are currently in the t

Major Polish transport projects connected to the TEN-T transport network and the Connecting Europe programme are to receive €4 billion of European Union funding. The S3 road from Nowa Sol to Hradec Kralove is among the Polish TEN-T road project works benefiting from the new EU fund. As part of the Connecting Europe Scheme, the €4 billion EU investment will also cover works on two major border road schemes: the S69 road from Bielsko-Biala, and the S61 from Augustow.

The transport corridor created by the Transistmico project, linking the port of Coatzacoalcos (Veracruz) with Salina Cruz (Oaxaca) in Mexico, should be operational within three years if US$2 billion of investment is secured. Representatives from the API port authority in Coatzacoalcos said that the conditions to develop this scheme are ideal, whilst technical studies will be developed in the short term.

Guatemala is to negotiate a loan of US$400 million with the Central American Bank for Economic Integration (CABEI) to develop rural roads. The loan will be on top of loans of $200 million taken from the World Bank and of $237 million taken from the IADB for the same purpose. The nation’s government says that with $150 million alone it could also build nearly 500kms of rural roads. The authorities would also like to replace some of existing bridges. Between 60 and 70 temporary bridges are earmarked to be re

Vietnam received around US$2.07 trillion (PHP90 trillion) between 2011 and 2013 from private investors for major transport infrastructure projects, according to the country’s Ministry of Transport. Among the contracts awarded to private investors during 2011-2013 is the expansion of National Highway No 1 that is to be carried out under a build-operate-transfer (BOT) basis with an investment, while others are awarded as public-private partnership (PPP) or build and transfer (BT) projects.