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In Portugal work is restarting on the stalled Marao tunnel project. The Portuguese Government has assured financing from the EU to complete the necessary work for the 5.7km tunnel. The contractor working on the project originally hit financial problems, resulting in the work grinding to a halt and the Portuguese Government cancelling the contract with the original concession holder. The cost of the project has estimated at €204 million and the EU may finance up to €200 million of this. The package of works

The US Government has proposed an investment of some US$320 billion for repairs on roads and transit systems. The US president, Barack Obama, has suggested financing this four-year plan by revising how businesses are taxed and closing tax loopholes. Another proposal has been to revamp the tax code that allocated spending of $126.5 billion for infrastructure and highways. One other option includes increasing taxes on fuels used in trucks and cars to pay for the upgrades. In addition, Obama unveiled the comme

Plans are in hand for a new highway connection between Myanmar and China. The governments of the two countries have been discussing the possibility of the Myanmar-China Corridor. This route would run from Ruili in China to Kyaukphyu in Myanmar. The work is likely to be carried out under the PPP model, with a build, operate, transfer package for the winning tender. The first stage of the project will commence during 2014.

New road links are planned to connect Slovakia and its neighbour, the Czech Republic. The Slovak Ministry of Transport stated that by 2020 two new routes are planned to link the countries. The R6 expressway will run from Puchov in Slovakia and connect the Trencin region with Zlin in the Czech Republic. Meanwhile the R5 expressway will run from Svrcinovec in Slovakia and link the country’s Zilina regions with the Morava-Sliezsko region in the Czech Republic. Construction for the R6 project is expected to sta

Morocco’s road expansion programme is proving successful and meeting targets. At the end of 2013, the country had some 730km of expressways in service. The building programme continues and by 2016, the authorities hope to extend this to 1,600km. However a study into the possibility of creating expressways between industrial zones and logistics platforms now has to be carried out to help deliver the road expansion targets. One option is for building expressways that run in parallel with highways to link two

The National Infrastructure Agency of Colombia aims to award tenders for 30 of its key 4G highway projects during 2014. In all the 4G programme includes 40 highway projects. Of these projects, the tenders for 10 are close to being opened. The first of the projects were going to be put to tender early in February 2014 but the banks involved asked for more time. The Colombian society of engineers (SCI) will have to decide the best route for a 21km section of the Ruta del Sol highway. The original design took

Driver First Assist (DFA) has completed a day of novel road safety training in conjunction with Devon County Council (DCC) in southwest England. With over five lives lost every day on UK roads, DCC was keen to bolster its road safety strategy with help from DFA, an initiative which trains professional drivers to deal with road traffic collisions (RTCs) in a bid to save lives. DFA course participants learn a variety of information, from how to manage the scene of an RTC prior to the emergency services arr