Finance & Funding

Nicaragua has revealed plans for its road development work to be carried out in 2019. The Ministry of Transport and Infrastructure (MTI) has set a budget at US$168.3 million and the plan involves the construction of 210.5km of new road links. This is an increase over the 162km of new roads that MTI set as its plan for 2018. However the 2019 budget is lower than that set for 2018, so there have been questions as to how the target will be achieved.

Spanish construction group Rover Alcisa, through its Polish division RoverPol, will rebuild the Lekno Junction in the city of Szczecin. The multi-level intersection deal covering road and rail works - worth nearly US$35 million - is part of a major downtown bypass project. Szczecin, near the Baltic Sea and Germany, has a population of around 400,000.

A series of road development projects will be carried out in Siberia’s Irktusk Region. The programme of works will be carried out during the 2019-2024 period. Repairs will be carried out to 350km of roads while 200km of new roads will be constructed during the entire programme. In 2019 alone, the plan calls for 140km of roads to be rebuilt.

Uganda’s Jinja Nile Bridge is now open to traffic. Costing US$129 million in all, around $100 million of the funding was supplied by Japan in the form of a loan. The 525m-long bridge features a cable-stayed design, the longest of its type in Uganda and second longest in East Africa after the 680m-long Kigamboni bridge in Tanzania, which also recently opened to traffic. Egypt’s Suez Canal Bridge is the longest cable-stayed type in Africa, measuring 3.9km, followed by the 1.36km Lekki Ikoyi Bridge in Nigeria

Caterpillar is changing the logo on its machines, replacing the current Power Edge design.