Finance & Funding

Malaysian prime minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak said the toll-free Pan Borneo highway should trigger economic growth in Sarawak state which has been held back by the lack of a good road network. Razak was speaking at the signing of a memorandum of understanding between federal government officials, officials from the state of Sarawak and infrastructure company Lebuhraya Borneo Utara Sdn. The event took place in the federal administrative capital Putrajaya, around 25km from the capital city Kuala L

The Federal Highway Association (FHWA) has published a Traffic Volume Trends report, which reveals that over the past 12 months Americans have driven a record 3.07 trillion miles. According to the report, vehicle miles travelled (VMT) increased 3.9% in April, compared to April 2014. The report shows VMT has increased 36% since 1993, when the federal motor fuels excise rate was last adjusted. Fixing the ailing federal Highway Trust Fund (HTF)—the source, on average, of nearly 52% of annual highway and b

Plans are in hand in Bolivia for 10 road projects. The state-owned road operator ABC has started the projects, which involve investments of more than US$588 million and extend for over 493km. China Harzone Industry Corporation is handling the $66.1 million project to develop the 38.06km Final Avenida Petrolera-Paracaya scheme in Cochabamba. Sinopec International signed the deal for the 58.8 km Puente Yapacani-Puente Ichilo project. Other projects include the 59km Lluchu-Ravelo road (linked to Santa Fe), whi

Chinese banks are providing US$297 million in loans for road construction in the Kyrgyz Republic. The loan will be used to carry out Phase II of the programme to construct the new North-South road. The project is for the construction of the 96km Aral-Kazarman road and also includes building a 700m stretch of tunnel along the route as part of the works.

Plans are progressing in Kazakhstan for the project to construct the Big Almaty Ring Road. A number of investors are involved in financing the project and are planning to invest US$1.2 billion in the ring road. The contract will include construction and operation of the project. Strong interest has been shown in the project by the EBRD, the Asian Development Bank, IFC, and the Islamic Development Bank. Meanwhile according to Kazakhstan's Committee of Roads, the economic effect of the Western Europe-Western

According to a report from US-based research firm Freedonia, world demand for construction machinery will grow by 3.9%/year to $218 billion by 2019. The Asia/Pacific region, Central and South America, and the Africa/Mideast region are all expected to register above average gains looking ahead as construction spending, particularly on infrastructure projects, continues to increase. More than two-thirds of all additional construction equipment demand generated between 2014 and 2019 will be in China according

The tender process for the road connections to the third bridge over the Bosporus in Turkey has been delayed once more. This is the third time the tender for the connecting roads for Istanbul's third bridge over the Bosporus has been postponed. The tender for the North Marmara Motorway was originally set for 6th March 2015 but was then pushed back to the 6th May. It was then announced that the tender would be run in two stages, with the Kinali-Odayeri motorway tender on 7th July and the Kurtkoy-Akyazi motor