News

In Western Australia plans are in hand for the new Perth freight link. This will run between Muchea and Fremantle, and it will start with the Roe 8 project and extend Roe Highway through to Stock Road. The route will remove some 500 trucks/day from the Leach Highway, helping cut congestion. The project will cost around US$1.3 billion (A$1.6 billion), with funding split between the Western Australia State Government and the Federal Government. The route should be complete in 2016. Also in Australia, work has

Russia's state highways agency AVTODOR has invited bids for construction of another section of the Moscow to St. Petersburg toll motorway. Starting cost of the bid to build the section from kilometre 58-149 is nearly US$1.2 billion. Investors will have to put up front 20% of the accepted bid cost to build the 91km section. Construction of the 700km motorway is being let in sections, with highly competitive bids coming from the major international players in highways infrastructure. In February 2014

The Polish construction consortium of Budimex and Ferrovial Agroman has won a tender to build a 22.6km section of the S3 express road between Silesian town of Legnica in the southwest and Lubin Poludiine, around 170km southeast of the capital Warsaw. The bid by the consortium, in which Budimex has a 95% stake, was nearly US$234 million and construction is expected to take 30 months. Ferrovial Agroman is the engineering and construction arm of Spanish infrastructure group Ferrovial. In early December,

Engineering specialist Ramboll has acquired the US-based global consultancy, ENVIRON. The deal gives Ramboll a strong market position globally, particularly in the environmental sector. At the time of the acquisition, the combined revenue of Ramboll and ENVIRON exceeds US$1.7 billion, of which 34% will be generated outside the Nordic countries. Measured on revenue the US will become the fourth biggest geography after Denmark, Norway and Sweden. Commenting on the acquisition Ramboll Group CEO Jens-Peter

In Mozambique a budget of US$100 million has been set for road rehabilitation work to be carried out in Nampula Province. The upgrades will be carried out for a total distance of a 300km and will be carried out in phases. Work will commence in 2015. The road improvements will be carried out on the Nametil-Nampula city, Moma-Nametil city, Angoche-Moma, Monapo-Angoche and Angoche-Nametil sections of road.

A new co-funded European project will provide fast-charging facilities for electric vehicles along major routes across the EU. The Trans-European Transport Networks (TEN-T) project is named the European Long-distance Electric Clean Transport Road Infrastructure Corridor (ELECTRIC). The project will see the installation of a corridor of high-quality fast chargers along key European highways by the end of 2015. The project should boost electric vehicle uptake in the involved Member States and focus on interop

Algeria has set a new 2015 road maintenance and upgrade budget for its highway network. The Ministry for Public Works announced it is setting aside close to US$347 million for maintenance work on the country's highways during 2015. The network is now 32,000km long, following a series of projects in recent years. The budget will include the updating of traffic signalling technologies.