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A new partnership between Naim Holdings and Samuda has been formed in Malaysia with the intention of bidding for major road projects. The firms are keen to bid on the coastal highway, which will connect with the Pan Borneo Highway. The two companies are also working together as a joint venture at present on a US$284.7 million contract to build an 89km stretch of the Pan Borneo Highway in Sarawak, one of 11 sections of the route currently under construction.

Russia’s Kaliningrad enclave has set a budget of over US$180 million for road development during the 2019-2021 period. This will be used for maintaining and improving existing roads, as well as developing new links. Regional and municipal roads will benefit from the spending programme. Although Kaliningrad is itself Russian territory, it lies in between Poland and Lithuania and is separated from the rest of Russia.

A major tunnel project in Australia is facing a serious delay due to slow progress between the construction firms and construction unions. The US$4.73 billion (A$6.7 billion) project for the West Gate Tunnel will provide an imporoved link between the West Gate Freeway and the CityLink, reducing congestion and cutting journey times for drivers.

Mexico’s Puebla State is to benefit from strong spending on road development work during 2019. Two major road projects will be carried out at a combined cost of US$159.4 million. One of the projects is for the development of the Izucar de Matamoros-Acatlan de Osorio road.

A major programme of road repairs has been set in Honduras. The new road infrastructure plan is for the 2018-2022 period and aims to improve and upgrade 96% of the country’s existing network. At present a mere 4% of the country’s 16,412km road network is considered satisfactory.

Mozambique’s new suspension bridge connecting Maputo with Catembe is now open to traffic. The suspension bridge is the longest of its type in Africa, measuring almost 3km-long and surpassing the previous holder of this accolade, the Mapati Bridge in the Democratic Republic of Congo. The new bridge spans Maputo Bay and forms part of a new highway connection running from Mozambique’s capital, Maputo, all the way to the border with South Africa. The route will be of major benefit for Mozambique, helping to boo

A new report has highlighted the risk of crashes involving ATVs being operated off-road by young drivers. According to data from the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) in the US, ATV injuries led to over 2 million visits to hospital emergency departments in the period between 2000 and 2015. In 2015 alone, there were 108,000 visits to emergency rooms in the US, as a result of ATV crashes.

A recent study by Sweden’s Chalmers University of Technology concludes that pavement and road snowmelt systems reduce the risk of slipping in winter conditions. The study compared statistics from 20 of the country's largest cities, according to a report in the newspaper Göteborgs Posten. It found that the difference in accidents between heated ground and unheated ground was so large that four of five slipping accidents could be avoided through snowmelt systems.