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A series of major infrastructure projects in Malaysia are attracting strong interest from prospective bidders. The series of infrastructure projects forms part of the 11th Malaysia Plan (11MP). Firms keen to participate in the tender process include UEM Edgenta, Bina Puri Holdings and Nexgram Holdings. One of the biggest projects planned is for the Pan Borneo Highway. In all this is expected to be worth some US$7.18 billion. The start of the works for the 1,663km road has yet to be defined but the route sho

Proposals to construct the Sunda Strait Bridge are not feasible, according to the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources of Indonesia. Safety risks from earthquakes, tsunami, high tides and extreme weather conditions make the project impractical. A US$75.46 million feasibility study was carried out for the project. This pointed out that the bridge is at a high risk from earthquakes and tsunamis due to its vicinity to the Anak Krakatoa volcano.

The Liebherr Group has seen a steady financial performance in 2014, with turnover reaching a healthy €8.823 billion, similar to the previous financial year. The company continued to invest in developing its operations, spending €816 million in expanding and modernising its manufacturing facilities and also strengthening the sales and service organisation. The number of employees has now risen to 40,839 in total. The €8.823 billion turnover was slightly lower, 1.6%, than for the previous financial year howev

Algeria is upgrading National Road One (RN01) so that it will become the North-South motorway. The project involves widening and improving the route as well as adding more lanes. The work forms part of the 2010-2014 five-year plan and involves seven local and national companies. It involves doubling the number of lanes for the 103km stretch between the Laghouat and Ghardaïa regions. The work is costing US$116 million. Work on the first 51km section will be completed at the end of August 2015, while the seco

Colombia’s Villavicencio-Yopal highway will be built by the consortium Estructura Plural Arauca (Conecol-Episol). The package of works was awarded by Colombia's National Infrastructure Agency (ANI). This deal forms part of the group of tenders for the second tranche of Colombia’s 4G roads programme. All nine of the 4G roads projects will be awarded by 15th July 2015. Under the Villavicencio-Yopal highway concession, the consortium must develop 261km of the route with an investment of US$741.9 million. The n

A joint venture featuring John Holland, Samsung C&T and Leighton Contractors (Leighton) has secured a deal to build and design Sydney’s M4 East motorway. The M4 East forms part of a project to build the WestConnex road tunnel, completion of which is expected in 2023. The M4 East is planned to be ready in 2019, while the WestConnex road tunnel is the biggest transport infrastructure of its kind in Australia. The deal won by the joint venture partners is valued at US$2.1 billion. The WestConnex project is pla

A traffic officer caused consternation in China as a marathon was being held. The policeman was directing traffic and trying to ensure the safety of those competing but attracted the attentions of hundreds of female runners while doing so. The raucous runners stopped running and instead crowded around the hapless handsome hunk, who closely resembled a famous Chinese actor who plays a police officer in a popular TV series. The runners all wanted their photos taken with the officer, who is recently married an

California is home to many weird and wonderful home-made vehicles, some more useful than other. But few can be as useful as the car pool table car which can do up to 160km/h on the freeway. A late model Chevrolet Monte Carlo is the base for this particular pool table. The roof was cut off, the vehicle then chopped in half and thanks to some artful but careful welding, a pool table on car wheels was added to the rear of the assembly. At the press of a button, hydraulic pads drop down from underneath the ta

Bystanders in an Ohio town were somewhat perplexed at the sight of a car being driven along the road with a cat tied securely on top of the bonnet (hood). On hearing reports of this occurrence from a series of worried locals, police responded rapidly in a bid to track the offending driver, an elderly woman. However the trail had already grown cold and the cat carrying car had disappeared from the roadway, leaving both police and residents somewhat mystified over the incident. A local animal charity commente