News

The Canadian province of Ontario has earmarked around US$1 billion for road repairs and upgrades during 2019. The money is for 123 projects of which around $384 million will go to 20 projects in central Ontario. Northeastern Ontario will receive $218 million for 32 highway projects, mostly along Highway 11 – at nearly 1,800km the second longest in Ontario, Canada’s mostly populous province. Highway 11 runs from the provincial capital Toronto northwards and then westwards to the border with Manitoba pr

Demolition of the Alaska Way Viaduct in the northwest US city of Seattle is underway, including the filling in of a redundant road tunnel.

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.

Funding worth US$500 million has still to be secured for road works in Paraguay. A consortium, Rutas del Este consortium, requires the financing to carry out the widening and upgrade work to Ruta 2 and Ruta 7. The work will be carried out under the PPP model, the first time this has been utilised in Paraguay. Rutas del Este comprises the contractors Sacyr and Ocho A. The consortium will operate the highway under a 30 year concession.

The package of works to construct the Pocitelj-Zvirovici stretch of the Corridor VC motorway in Bosnia has been awarded to two Chinese contractors. The 11km stretch of the route will cost nearly €103 million to build. The work will be handled jointly by the Synohydro Power Company and China State Construction Engineering Company. The package of works was awarded by Bosnia’s motorway company, Autoceste Federacije BiH. A portion of the funding required is being provided by the European Investment Bank (EIB).

A proposed upgrade to the road connecting Costa Rica’s capital San Jose with nearby Cartago has been put forward. The project would cut journey times to just 30 minutes. The current route is known for its traffic delays, handling around 51,000 vehicles/day. The new route would feature a 3.2km section of flyover and the estimated cost is US$400 million. Should the project get the go ahead, work would commence in early 2021 and should take around two years to complete.

Urban road safety is a key problem in Europe, an issue that needs to be addressed as a priority. That is the finding of a new report by the European Transport Safety Council (ETSC). The ETSC’s report reveals that road deaths on urban roads decreased at around half the rate of those on rural roads over the period 2010-2017. The report also shows that vulnerable road users such as pedestrians, cyclists and motorcyclists, account for 70% of those killed and seriously injured on urban roads. Dovilė Adminaitė-

The plan to build a bridge linking the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) with the Republic of the Congo has stalled once more. The road/rail bridge bridge is intended to provide a better connection between the DRC and the Republic of the Congo. The bridge would be around 4km long and the project was first proposed some years ago and the project to build the structure was restarted in 2017. However it now faces opposition in the DRC from Congo Uni/ABSL. According to this group, building the bridge would