Road Structures

A 107km road section between San Jose and Limon in Costa Rica could be transformed into a large four-lane motorway using a loan from China of US$395.7 million. The Costa Rican government could add $89 million to the loan, creating a large project budget of $485 million. President Laura Chinchilla has referred the project to the Costa Rican Congress for approval. Chinese firm CHEC will work on the design of this motorway over the next eight months. The project could be finished in three and a half years.

An underground tunnel could replace the Hammersmith flyover in London, England. Plans state the structure could be built from the Hogarth roundabout to Earl's Court, replacing the existing flyover. The landmark bridge is poised for an 18-month patch-up costing €70.87 million (£60 million), but in 15-20 years will need replacing. Plans to in effect bury the heavily used flyover, which handles 90,000 vehicles each day, have been reportedly welcomed by many residents.

Spanish infrastructure group Abertis plans to invest heavily in Brazil through national road and telephone tower projects, after selling its airports-based operations by 2014. The Group is evaluating participation in new highway auctions through its subsidiary, Arteris. Arteris also plans to invest around US$3.22 billion (BRL 7 billion) over the coming years in the nine road projects it currently owns, with $590.13 million (BRL1.3 billion) being invested in 2013. The company will invest $453.94 million (

In Sweden, the right wing majority governing the county of Stockholm is proposing to raise the current congestion charge and also introduce a congestion charge for traffic on Essingeleden from 1 January 2016. The increased annual tax income of €56.81 million (SEK500 million) will be invested in the extension of the metro system. Ulla Hamilton, vice mayor of traffic, said that the increased population growth in Stockholm has prompted her Moderate Party to promote added congestion charges.

The National Infrastructure Agency (ANI) in Colombia has awarded a contract to the Estructuracion Vial consortium to carry out the designs and studies for six road projects worth a combined US$5.15 billion (COP9.75 trillion). Part of the Fondo de Adaptacion programme, the six road schemes include Bogota-Bucaramanga; Bucaramanga-Pamplona; Duitama-Pamplona-Cucuta; Norte de Santander (including Ocana-Astilleros and Cucuta-Puerto Santander); Transversales Cusiana-Carare-Boyaca (including Puerto Araujo-Tunja-

Moscow region governor Andrey Vorobyev has sent a letter to the Minister of Transport Maxim Sokolov asking for assistance with expansion of the Starosheremetyevskoye highway. The expansion would increase the key highway’s number of lanes to four by 2015. The project is set to cost US$118 million (RUB3.8 billion), with the regional budget to provide $8.96 million (RUB290 million). Sheremetyevo airport bosses opposes the project, arguing that highway expansion will cause traffic jams on approaches to th

Amey has been awarded the €235 million (£200 million) Area 8 contract by the Highways Agency. The contract involves the upgrade and maintenance of major A roads and motorways in parts of Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire and Hertfordshire. Starting on 1 April 2014, The Asset Support Contract (ASC) is the 5th to be awarded by the agency to date. ASCs have been designed to help the Agency cut road maintenance costs by a quarter by 2015.

Great interest has been shown in tenders advertised by GDDKiA to build three sections of the S3 dual carriageway in Poland. A total of 18 bids were received from firms and consortia for the first section, which measures 14.4km and extends from the Kazmierzow junction to Lubin North. The other two sections, from the Lubin North junction to the Lubin South junction (11.3km) and from Lubin South to the Legnica II junction (22.6km), both attracted similar bidders to the first tender.

The International Transport Forum (ITF) has published a new report on how better regulated Public-Private Partnerships (PPPs) can improve funding and delivery of transport infrastructure. The ITF highlights how PPPs have become an important tool for governments to attract private finance for infrastructure investments. In the face of tight budgets, PPPs are seen as a means to maintain transport investment and limit public spending at the same time.

The Chinese province of Guangdong is to invest over US$117.5 billion (CNY720 billion) on highway investment during 2013-2017, according to the Guangdong Transportation Bureau. Following the massive four-year investment, the total highway network in the province will increase to 8,140kms. The number of highway with links to other provinces will increase to 24. Construction of the 32.55km Zhuhai's Jindong to Hengqin highway will start at the end of this year.