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Ritchie Bros is celebrating its 20th anniversary in the United Arab Emirates with a Dubai auction on December 13th and 14th, 2016. Over 1,700 machines and trucks from the Middle East region will go under the hammer at the two-day unreserved auction. Bids can be made in person at the auction site, online at rbauction.com and by proxy. Ritchie Bros has so far held 72 auctions in Dubai, selling over 120,000 lots and registering more than 40,000 bidders in its 20 years of operations in the country. Equipment

Vietnam’s road safety statistics are improving, a major development for the country. Between December the 16th 2015 and November the 15th 2016, there were 19,429 crashes in Vietnam, a drop of 1,426 than from the same period in the previous year. Meanwhile injuries due to road crashes dropped by 1,990 to 17,184 for the period compared with the previous year. Road deaths during this time reached 7,907. Various road safety measures have been introduced by the Vietnam Government in a bid to cut the casualty rat

Alcohol use is linked to an increasing number of road deaths in Costa Rica. A study compiled by Costa Rica’s Institute on Alcoholism and Drug Dependence (IAFA) reveals that 30% of the country’s reported road deaths have been caused by alcohol. This is of major concern as the report shows how road deaths caused by alcohol use have increased. Studies carried out in 2004 showed that 26% of road deaths were caused by alcohol. The majority of people killed in road crashes in Costa Rica are aged 20-49. A high num

A new road and viaduct project is planned for Bizerte in Tunisia. The project will be paid for through a loan worth €123 million agreed with the European Investment Bank (EIB). The project includes building a 9.5km road section and a 2km viaduct that will span the entrance to Lake Bizerte. Once the link is in place it will help reduce congestion as well as exhaust pollution close to Bizerte. The existing bridge is no longer able to meet traffic demands but the new structure will feature two lanes in either

Construction work on the Central Section of Russia’s Western High-Speed Diameter (WHSD) in St Petersburg is complete, with some small detail work now being finished off. The WHSD connects the Southern, Central and Northern sections of St Petersburg and will open to traffic at the end of December. VTB Capital was a key participant in funding the construction of the Central Section and is a major shareholder in the consortium that will operate the entire WHSD route.

Modest growth in transport construction is predicted in the US in 2017 by the American Road & Transportation Builders Association (ARTBA). According to a report by ARTBA chief economist, Dr Alison Premo Black, total transportation construction and related market activity is expected to grow 1.3% in 2017, driven largely by increases in highway and bridge private construction activity supporting residential and commercial developments. In 2017, the market is expected to reach US$247.8 billion, up from $244

A loan from the China Exim Bank will help pay for a new road project in Kenya. The loan is being offered to Kenya’s Government and is worth US$227.2 million, around 46% of the sum required for the whole 472km road project. The project is being handled in three phases, with this loan being sufficient for the first 192km stretch that will connect Kibwezi with Kitui, running through Mutomo. This first section will be constructed by Chinese contractor Sinohydro. The second stretch of the project will measure 16

Surveying and design work for a new road link in Russia to connect the Black Sea with the Caucasian Mineral Waters will commence in 2017. The new toll road will run between Kislovodsk and Sochi and will halve the distance between the two, currently a distance of 600km. The project is expected to cost in the order of US$1 billion to carry out, with the contract having been organised partly by the Republic of Karachay-Cherkessia (North Caucasus), through which a section of the new route will run.

Work is now going ahead on the new highway stretch to connect Peka Peka with Otaki, which will form part of the planned Kapiti Expressway. This 13km stretch of highway is being built by contractor Fletcher Construction. The package of works was awarded by the New Zealand Transport Agency (NZTA) and involves designing and building the new link. Construction work will start in 2017 and is expected to take until 2020.

New bridge crossings over the Amu Darya River will improve transport connections between Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan. The bridges will open to traffic in early 2017 and will carry both motor vehicles and trains. The bridges have cost around US$123 million to construct. The new links have been needed for some time as existing crossings between the two countries have been insufficient and resulted in long delays. The river forms the border between the two countries for some distance.