Highway & Network Management

Work is being planned on Melbourne's M80 ring road upgrade. This A$2.25 billion project is intended to cut congestion at peak periods, boost safety and reduce journey times for commuters and freight traffic. The project is due for completion in 2013 with some of the work already underway. The work includes an extra lane being installed on either side of the road between Sunshine Avenue and Furlong Road as well as widening of the freeway bridge over Furlong Road.

Vietnam intends to set up an electronic network that will charge vehicle drivers to enter the centre of Ho Chi Minh City. Congestion is a major problem in the city and the authorities wish to help tackle the issue and allow better traffic flow. The electronic congestion charging system will be installed on roads at Districts 10, 3 and 1 and Ho Chi Minh City will the first in Vietnam to adopt such an approach.

Planning for West Africa's first PPP motorway deal is now moving forward and construction work is due to begin this summer. The ?200 million Toll Highway will run 25km from Dakar, the capital of Senegal, towards the country's new international airport (AIBD) at Diass and the economic development gateway at Diamniadio. The highway will cross a densely populated district at Pikine Irrégulier Sud and forms part of a wider development programme for the Dakar region.

Ethiopia is targeting a major investment in transport infrastructure as a means to boost its economy in the long term. The country's government has plans for a road building programme worth an impressive US$8.97 billion. The aim of the programme will be to build 82,500km of roads over a five year period. This will extend Ethiopia's road network from 49,000km at present to a total of 136,000km.

Plans are well in hand for a new link that will improve connections between capital Santiago and its fast growing satellite town of Lampa. The US$130 million project will shorten the current journey time of one hour to 35 minutes and is expected to carry some 10,000 - 17,000 vehicles/day when it opens to traffic.

Work on the eastern section of the Hunter Expressway project in New South Wales in Australia will be carried out by Theiss. The firm won the deal for preliminary design and development of the US$736 million (A$825 million) project, which is for a 13.3km section of the link. Theiss is working on the project with Hyder Consulting and Parsons Brinkerhoff. Once the Hunter Expressway is complete in late 2013, it will cut travel times from the Hunter to Newcastle by 28 minutes.

Turkey is continuing its development of new highway links, with plans for a new highway connecting the cities of Rize and Mardin. When complete in 2023, the new highway will pass through 15 cities in all and reduce the travel time between Rize and Mardin to 5-6 hours compared with 12 at present. Turkey is investing heavily in transport as part of its development programme.Turkey is continuing its development of new highway links, with plans for a new highway connecting the cities of Rize and Mardin. When co

The consortium building Australia's new Northern Link tollway expects the project to require four years to complete. The US$1.41 billion (A$1.5 billion) project is being carried out by a consortium led by Spanish contrator Acciona, with construction due to commence at the end of this year. The work is being part funded by a $745 million loan from the State Government for the area and will also receive $532 million of funding from the Federal Government.

Work is now underway in Bangladesh on the country's new Dhaka Elevated Expressway. The construction work is being carried out by Italian-Thai Development and the project is expected to help address Dhaka's chronic traffic congestion issues. The project is costing US$1.2 billion and the 26km route will carry the expressway through Dhaka, including Kamalapur, Golapbag, Tejgaon, Kuril and Banani.