Road Structures

Plans are being worked on intended to improve traffic flow around Belgium’s capital Brussels. The local government for the Flanders Region is considering a number of plans at present. The first would see a 15km tunnel running from Grand-Bigard to Woluwe-Saint-Etinne. The second option is for a second ring road to be construction between Alost, Malines and Louvain, which would leave the current ring road for traffic moving into and out of Brussels.

Efkon is playing an important role in the construction of the €660 million Limerick Tunnel project in Ireland. The project forms part of the country’s Transport 21 Plan, a huge road construction programme while the tunnel is the largest civil engineering work for the Dublin area since 1920.

ustria’s Government is cutting its road construction budget for 2010 in a bid to trim costs. This will have a major effect on the highway projects contractor Asfinag is involved in at present. The contractor may have to delay construction of the A5 and A3 projects or make them narrower.

The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) is providing a loan worth €50 million to help with the rehabilitation of regional and local roads as well as the modernisation and improvement of transport infrastructure in Albania. This EBRD loan will be used to improve to 500km of roads in rural areas of Albania. The European Investment Bank (EIB) will provide a loan for the same amount for the project. The project is also supported by €33 million in grant financing from the European Commission

Official approval is now being given for changes to the agreement between the Bulgarian authorities and the European Investment Bank (EIB) for the second Danube bridge project. So far the EIB is providing €50 million, with €5 million having already been used. The Bulgarian authorities are agreeing to accept a shorter loan period of 14.5 years rather than the 17-year term originally agreed with the EIB.

A major milestone has been achieved in New Zealand on a major road project that is intended to deal with a major traffic bottleneck in the city of Auckland. The launching gantry team has now installed the last segment of the new northbound viaduct, a key stage in the Newmarket Viaduct Replacement project. There is currently a 1.5m gap between the segments. So, on Saturday 3rd and Sunday 4th December the two viaducts will be cemented together in an 18 hour procedure known as the Stitch. From then until the e

Roads in the Isle of Wight, off the south coast of England, are set for a major upgrade following £364.6 million (E404 million) of government funding. The Private Finance Initiative (PFI) funding will allow the Isle of Wight Council to carry out vital improvements and maintenance to local roads over 25 years including road surface improvement and maintenance; footway and cycleway improvement; maintenance on bridges and other structures; upgrades to traffic signals, signs, street nameplates and road marking

A debate is now underway regarding the fate of the existing Forth Road Bridge in the Scottish capital Edinburgh. A new Forth Replacement Bridge is being planned at a cost of some €2.64 billion and once this opens, it will carry heavy vehicles, which will not be allowed over the current bridge. Excessive loading and corrosion have taken their toll on the current bridge, although measures to halt the cable corrosion in this suspension bridge have now been taken.

A new partnership has been established between RZDstroy and Alpine Bau. The two firms have set up the joint venture Alpine-RZDstroy business to tackle infrastructure projects in Sochi in Russia and will work on two tunnel projects, providing links for the upcoming Winter Olympics. The two firms are also planning to work on tunnel projects in Austria. Alpine-RZDstroy will build the Alptransit Brenner Baulos Al–Grundausrustung Tunnel in Austria’s Tirol region.

The UK Government is now considering the report on the proposed Mersey Gateway Bridge project in north-west England. The inspector’s report from last summer’s public inquiry investigates the plans to build a new bridge over the River Mersey between Runcorn and Widnes.