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The wealth of experiences and ideas shared during the recent 4th IRF Caribbean Regional Congress underscored the International Road Federation’s value in shaping policy contributions to global transportation challenges ranging from resilient infrastructure to road safety. The regional congress coincided with the start of the 3rd United Nations Global Road Safety Week, an initiative aimed at fostering discussion and awareness-raising in more than 100 countries. The event was run by the IRF Washington office

The International Road Federation (IRF Geneva), the Transport Planning and Research Institute of the Ministry of Transport of China (TPRI), and the China Highway and Transportation Society (CHTS) will be hosting a major conference in the beautiful city of Chongqing, China on 20th-22nd September 2015. The call for abstracts is now open. Chongqing was separated from Sichuan province and made into a municipality in its own right in March 1997 in order to accelerate its development. Since its elevation to nati

The World Bank will grant Uzbekistan a US$200 million loan for 25 years, including a grace period of five years. The funds will go towards the $240 million Regional Roads Development project that is scheduled to be completed by 2021, according to UzDaily.uz. Uzbekistan’s government also reported that around 117km roads were built in the first half of this year.

The Hungarian government has announced that it will restart work on a new section of the M4 dual carriageway between Albertirsa and Ullo in 2016. Hungarian media reported that the government will invest around €192 million and no funding will come from the European Union, of which the country is a member. The two towns are around 25.5km apart, with Albertirsa closest to the capital Budapest at around 60km. The project should be finished some time in 2019, according to Hungarian media. The announcem

Mexico’s massive infrastructure programme is broadly on track for completion. The country’s Secretariat of Communications and Transport (SCT) has confirmed that 80% of the projects included in the national infrastructure plan (PNI) between 2014 and 2018 are already under development. There are 52 major road infrastructure projects within the PNI. Of these, 17 of the new highways have been completed. A total of 17,000km of new roads have been built in Mexico since 2012. The PNI programme also includes improv

Work is underway on the second phase of a new highway in China. The route connects Xihua and Zhoukou with Zhengzhou Airport. The new highway is due for completion in 2017 and will be 45km long, with a maximum speed limit of 120km/h. The six lane highway is costing US$805 million to construct.

Panama’s Ministry of Public Works (MOP) is spending some US$2.96 billion during its present administration on infrastructure projects. These include the construction of a fourth bridge over the Panama Canal, which will link the Albrook district and the North Corridor. There are four road widening projects planned. The link between the Las Americas bridge and Arraijan will be expanded to eight lanes and the Panamericana road between La Chorrera and San Carlos will be expanded to six lanes. The Omar Torrijos

The authorities in Bangkok are planning a tough safety drive in a bid to reduce the city’s high road death toll. The Bangkok Metropolitan Administration (BMA) promised to reduce the number of traffic offences by holding road awareness campaigns. In 2014, a total of 27,460 road crashes were reported in Bangkok, resulting in 262 deaths, 348 critical injures and 11,225 slight injuries. Thailand’s road death toll is high overall with 6,215 reported killed on its roads during 2014, along with 2,634 serious injur