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Infrastructure engineering firm WS Atkins sold its stake in London’s M25 orbital road to a consortium of institutional investors for nearly €79 million (£66.3 million). Atkins, a publicly listed UK company, sold to Edge Orbital Holdings 2 Limited and the deal for its minority stake is expected to be complete by March 2017, the end of the financial year, according to a statement by Atkins. In October, the Edge Orbital consortium picked up Skanska’s 40% stake in Connect Plus, which manages the M25. Skanska so

The authorities in Paraguay are devising plans to upgrade a 500km stretch of the important Rute 9 highway. The plans are being drawn up by the Paraguay Road Chamber (Cavialpa) and will be presented to the country’s Ministry of Public Works and Communications (MOPC). Should the plans then be accepted, this will allow the improvement works for Ruta 9, also known as Transchaco, to go ahead. The entire upgrade project is expected to cost in the region of US$450 million and should take around three years to comp

Construction will commence in April 2017 on a new road tunnel link in Karlsruhe. Austrian contractor STRABAG has an 84% stake in the consortium, which also includes Schleith, building the link. Civil design is being handled by Ed Züblin meanwhile. The new Kriegsstraße vehicle tunnel in Karlsruhe will carry two lanes of road traffic underground, while providing a surface connection for trams, pedestrians and cyclists. The tunnel construction forms part of the wider Kombilösung public transport infrastructure

Work is commencing on a new road link that will connect the A89 and A6 Autoroutes in France’s Rhône Department. In addition, work is also underway on the construction of the new Semanet viaduct connecting Route Nationale 6 with Autoroute 6. The viaduct is being built with a steel deck sitting on concrete supports. The construction work is being managed by Autoroute operator APRR. Once the work is complete in 2018, it will help reduce journey times between Bordeaux and Geneva.

A new bridge is being built in Austria to span the Danube River. The project is expected to cost €60 million. The new link will be constructed in the city of Linz. Construction of the new Donaubrücke (Danube Bridge) will commence in late 2017. The link is expected to open to traffic in the third quarter of 2020. The state of Upper Austria will provided 40% of the financing required.

The Czech government is to speed up motorway building in 2017, with 140km of new roads planned. The announcement comes as the country is looking at a new laws designed to streamline infrastructure tendering and to improve construction management, according to CIJ – Construction and Investment Journal. Projects can sometimes take as long as 12 years to get off the ground, the journal reported. Skanska boss Michal Jurka, the head of Skanska in the Czech Republic and Slovakia since September, said p