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Red tape and bureaucracy are to blame for delays to Peru’s highway concessions. Infrastructure association Afin cites these as the reasons the majority of Peru’s highway concessions have been held up, by as much as 10 years in certain instances. Business News Americas reports that so far, only 15% of Peru's 78,000km road network, around 12,445km, is paved according to Afin. The country has a particular need to revamp three major highways according to Afin: the 2,600km Pan- American highway, the 3,500km And

Wacker Neuson has improved damping for the centre pole on its reversible vibratory plates to reduce hand-arm vibration below 1.5 m/s², meaning there is no time limit for operation of the machines. The improvements are on machines in the weight class of 300kg to 800kg, or 40kN to 100kN of compaction performance. The diesel-powered vibratory plates DPU 4545, DPU 5545 and DPU 6555 achieve values of less than 1.5 m/s², while the DPU 4045 lies at just 0.9 m/s². Wacker Neuson said the improvements take int

Construction work is on track with the new cable-stayed bridge close to Morocco’s coastal city of Rabat. The cable-stayed bridge will form part of Rabat’s new bypass and will be the largest such structure in Africa when it is complete, later this year. The bypass crosses the Bouregreg valley and measures some 41km. The bridge itself will measure 950m and span 376m, with three lanes in each direction. Construction of the bridge has been financed by the World Bank and Autoroutes du Maroc (ADM) and is costing

Peruvian plans for the Pan-American Highways expect key stretches of the route to be complete during July of this year and another during 2016. One construction company will complete its contract for the Chincha-Pisco stretch of the highway by July, reports Business News Americas. Meanwhile work on the the Pisco-Ica stretch should be finished in 2016. The work in Ica region is of importance to Peru’s economy as this area is home to the country’s biggest agro-export industries, Minsur's tin smelter, Aceros A

The road maintenance crisis in the United Kingdom and the United States is deepening amid estimates that it will take millions of dollars to stop highway infrastructure from crumbling, including falling prey to potholes. A recent report by the BBC in the UK said that at least one municipal council, the city of Leeds, is facing a bill of nearly US$153 million to patch up its potholed roads. In the United States, Senator Bernie Sanders is t

In China Chongqing municipality has announced plans to invest close to US$12 billion (74.5 billion RMB) in transportation developments in 2015. Chongqing plans to spend $5.97 billion (37.1 billion RMB) in road construction, including 5,000km of rural roads while three new highways are due for completion in 2015. Other transport investments including spending boosting the rail network in the city by 155km and developing civil aviation.

An agreement has been reached between Chile and Argentina over a long discussed tunnel project. The proposed tunnel would stretch 11.5km and connect Argentina’s Mendoza Province with Chile’s Region VI, with the project having first been mooted as far back as 1992. The cost of the proposed Paso Las Lenas Tunnel has yet to be revealed although the projected route through the Andes Mountains has been announced. The tunnel portals will be some 2,050m above sea level and the project will include the construction

Slovakia has seen an increase in road crash deaths during 2014 compared with 2013. The country saw fatalities increase from 223 in 2013 to 258 in 2014. However the level of fatalities may be a statistical blip in that reported road crashes actually fell by 300 to 13,286 in all. Particular cause for concern was observed in the Nitra Region, which saw road crash deaths increase a shocking 132% and hit 51, the highest in Slovakia. Meanwhile the Trencin Region recorded the lowest road fatalities. Speeding on th

The cost of the first section of Vietnam’s Bien Hoa-Vung Tau highway, a 47km stretch in the Southern Key Economic Zone, will be around US$355 million. Vietnam’s transport ministry said the total cost of the entire 70km motorway will come in at $1.03 billion. The government considers the zone to be the country’s engine of growth, accounting for 60% of Vietnam’s industrial production by value and 70% of export revenue. The zone consists of eight localities - Ho Chi Minh City (formerly called Saigon), Bi

The occupants of this minibus had a narrow escape from serious injury when a container on the truck in front caught onto an overhanging tree.

The Brazilian state government of Parana has spent around US$1.73 billion on infrastructure projects over the past four years, including roads, railways, airports, ports and public buildings. According to Jose Richa Filho, the state’s infrastructure secretary, more investments will be made by local partners and through international financing. Around $3.63 million for road works between 2015 and 2018 with fund coming from partnerships with Votorantim and Klabin. Votorantim Group is one of the largest

The Czech transport minister has given construction firm Eurovia until April to start repairs on two bridges it built or face having its bank guarantees withdrawn. Transport Minister Dan Tok, who until December was the chief executive of Skanska in the Czech Republic, said he would call for a new tender for the repairs if no action is taken by Eurovia, according to a report by the Czech internet news portal iDNES. Tok said that the road bridges constructed six years ago on the D1 motorway slip road in

Worrying data on road safety has been released from Sweden and Israel. Sweden’s record on road safety is one of the best in the world, with a combination of tough enforcement and stiff penalties along with effective driver education and training having helped lower the country’s fatality rate. However the latest official figures from the Swedish Transport Administration (Trafikverket) show that 275 people were killed on Swedish roads in 2014, compared with 260 people in 2013. This may yet prove to be a stat

A major construction programme worth a total of US$2.5 billion is planned for Myanmar. The plans calls for the construction of some 54km of flyovers to be built in the city of Yangon, the country’s former capital. The Yangon City Development Committee (YCDC) has stated that the tender process for the project will be open to local and overseas companies. Private investment in the project is expected, with the tender due in the 2015-2016 financial year. Yangon is Myanmar’s largest city with an estimated popul