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The European Commission has approved €246 million towards construction of Romania’s Targu Mures-Campia Turzii section of the A 3motorway. The EC money for the 51km four-lane section is from the EC’s Cohesion Fund, according to a report by the Romania Journal. Bechtel was originally going to build most of the 603km A3 to connect Bucharest with the Transylvania region and the north-west part of the country. Work should have started by now but contractual issues with Bechtel hampered progress.

The European Commission has approved €165 million for expansion and upgrading of Croatia’s Istrian Y - Istarski Ipsilon - road network. The Istrian Y on the northern Istrian peninsula near Italy consists of a section of the A8 betweenb Matulji-Kanfanar and a section of the A9, from the Slovenian border-Kanfanar-Pula. The name is derived from the geographic layout of the highway network that takes the shape of the letter ‘Y’. The three stretches meet at the Kanfanar Interchange in south central Istria.

A funding package worth US$460 million is being provided by the World Bank’s International Development Association to pay for the upgrade to the Afghanistan-Pakistan road upgrade.

Kazakhstan is working on a major programme of road network development. The country will have an additional 4,500km of roads added to the network during 2018. Kazakhstan’s highway network will measure a total of 600km by the end of 2018 meanwhile. By the end of 2021, the plan is for Kazakhstan to have a network of some 10,000km of tolled roads, with 5,500km being built before 2020. At present Kazakhstan has just one 210km toll road connecting Astana with Buranbay.

Vietnam is pushing ahead with a series of road, highway and bridge projects that will improve the country’s transport network. Feasibility studies for three stretches of the North-South Expressway have been received by Vietnam’s Ministry of Transport (MoT). The 29km stretch from Nha Trang to Cam Lam is expected to cost US$177.9 million, with work starting in 2019 and due for completion in 2021. The 60km stretch from Dau Giay to Tan Phu will be built from 2018 to 2022. The 101km stretch from Vinh Hao to Pha

Work is underway in Poland on the S1 dual carriageway that will connect the country with neighbouring Slovakia. The project is costing €1.17 billion and the new link should be ready for traffic in 2023. The tender process is underway for one of the sections at present with the bids being reviewed for the stretch linking Pryzbedza and Milowka.

Official approval has been given for a major expressway project in Cambodia. The project is expected to cost US$1.87 billion and will be carried out under the build-operate-transfer model. The final approval was given by the Cambodian Government for the expressway, which will connect capital Phnom Penh with Preah Sihanouk Province.

Funding is being secured for a new bridge to be built to the north of the city of Hobart in Australia’s Tasmania State. The new bridge will span the Derwent River and is due for completion by 2024. Building the link will reduce journey times for drivers as the present link over the Derwent River has insufficient capacity suffers severe delays. An infrastructure budget of US$1.93 billion has been set, with the new Bridgewater Bridge being prioritised as a key project for construction.

A series of road repairs in Guatemala will help repair roads damaged by the recent El Fuego volcano eruption. The country’s Ministry of Communications, Infrastructure and Housing (CIV) has set a budget of US$31 million to be used for emergency road repair work. Some of this is being used from the country’s emergency fund while another portion is being brought forward from the budget intended for 2019.

Tanzania is setting out ambitious plans for road development with a series of projects being scheduled during 2018 and 2019. A budget of US$658.4 million has been set by the Tanzanian Ministry of Works, Transport and Communications for the period. This is intended to pay for works on 62 separate road projects. The plan forms part of a wider programme of works intended to boost road connectivity across East Africa. Included in this strategic plan are new highways, upgrades to existing routes to add capacity