Finance & Funding

Road widening work will be carried out in the Australian state of Queensland as part of the Gateway Motorway project. A budget of US$141 million (A$200 million) has been set for the work by the Queensland State Government. Meanwhile the Australian Federal Government will contribute from $564 million to $705 million (A$800 million to A$1 billion) for the project. This latest stage of the massive Gateway Motorway project involves widening the stretch of the route between Bracken Ridge and the Bruce State High

Romania’s transport ministry says it plans to build animal crossings over the A1 motorway between Lugoj and Deva in the west of the country. The crossings will be over a 9km section of the A1 and cost around €180 million, said Razvan Cuc, the transport minister. nTenders will be issued for both the design and construction with work to start by the end of the summer. When completed, likely by the end of this year, the A1 will be 576km long and run across Romania in a south-east to north-west direction.

France’s Transport Ministry has chosen construction and concessions group Eiffage as the single prospective concessionaire for the project to complete the Route Centre-Europe Atlantique. The east-west RCEA is considered to be one of the most dangerous routes in France, according to government statistics. Some sections of the route, also called the Route Nationale 79, has been upgraded into a four-lane motorway over the past several decades. The plan is make the remaining two-lane sections into four-lanes

Additional financing is required to help progress work on Thailand’s Bang Yai-Kanchanaburi highway project. An extra US$244 million is needed to push ahead with the work, which has been delayed due to problems in buying land. A key issue is that land costs have doubled in the area since the project was first approved by the Government of Thailand. Just 25% of the land required has so far been purchased.

A Polish-Hungarian consortium has signed a €44 million contract to construct a bridge over the Dunajec River near the southern Polish town of Nowy Sacz. Przedsiebiorstwo Wielobranzowe Banimex, from Poland, and Hungarian contractor Hodmezovasarhelyi Utepito Korlatolt Felelossegu will build the bridge within 25 months, according to Polish media reports. Nowy Sącz is at the confluence of the Kamienica and Dunajec rivers , about 20km north of the border with Slovakia and in the Sądecka Valley.

The authorities in Vietnam’s coastal Quang Ninh Province have set out a transport infrastructure development plan. The programme of works will prioritise development of the Van Don Economic Zone (Van Don EZ) under the plan. The programme of works involved is expected to be worth US$358 million. New roads are planned, along with new bridges to provide better connections to some of the many islands in the province. The existing Van Don Airport will also benefit from an upgrade to boost capacity. Quang N

Road works in the Philippines will benefit from funding being provided by Japan.

Approval has been given for the project to build the sixth bridge connecting Thailand with Laos.

New road connections will have to be built for the second Parana River crossing in Paraguay. In all around 37km of new road connections will be required, costing US$180 million. This work will also require the construction of two smaller bridges as well as an overpass section. Financing for the work is being provided via the Development Bank of Latin America (CAF).