Finance & Funding

A road widening project worth US$134.3 million is now going ahead in Ecuador. The road connecting Aloag with Santo Domingo is being improved along a 100km stretch, widening the route so that it will feature two lanes in either direction instead of the single lane in either direction at present. This will boost the transport connection between Pichincha Province and Santo Domingo de los Tsachilas Province. The contract was originally awarded in 2015 but stalled in 2017 following a disagreement over tolling.

Financing now looks to be secured for two major infrastructure projects in Bangladesh. The US$300 million Tamabil to Sylhet highway looks likely to receive a funding package from the Asian Infrastructure Development Bank (AIIB) in China. The feasibility study for the Shambhuganj Bridge also looks likely to receive funding from the AIIB.

Dutch construction company Heijmans has been awarded the final contract for the A1 motorway project between Apeldoorn and Azelo in the Netherlands. The €127 million contract will see the widening of 28km of motorway between Twello and Deventer to eight lanes and the road between Deventer-Oost and Rijssen widened to six lanes. Works is expected to start in spring 2019 for completion in the autumn 2020.

Australia’s New South Wales State is setting out its plan for future transport network development. Roads and highways remain a key priority for New South Wales, although development work will also encompass mass transit systems. However the State Government has made changes to the plans it set out for transport developments following feedback from residents in the areas being affected by the work. As a result, plans to build some road connections have been shelved and this includes work on a stretch of the

The European Commission has approved €246 million towards construction of Romania’s Targu Mures-Campia Turzii section of the A 3motorway. The EC money for the 51km four-lane section is from the EC’s Cohesion Fund, according to a report by the Romania Journal. Bechtel was originally going to build most of the 603km A3 to connect Bucharest with the Transylvania region and the north-west part of the country. Work should have started by now but contractual issues with Bechtel hampered progress.

The European Commission has approved €165 million for expansion and upgrading of Croatia’s Istrian Y - Istarski Ipsilon - road network. The Istrian Y on the northern Istrian peninsula near Italy consists of a section of the A8 betweenb Matulji-Kanfanar and a section of the A9, from the Slovenian border-Kanfanar-Pula. The name is derived from the geographic layout of the highway network that takes the shape of the letter ‘Y’. The three stretches meet at the Kanfanar Interchange in south central Istria.