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Financing now looks to have been fully secured for the Agua Negra tunnel project that will connect Chile and Argentina. The two countries have come to an agreement over how much they will contribute to the project, which is expected to cost around US$1.5 billion to construct. The financial contribution from each country will be in proportion to the length in each territory. With 28% of the 14km tunnel in Chile and 72% in Argentina, the latter will now provide the majority of the financing. The new tunnel

A further delay now faces construction work on New Zealand’s Southern Corridor improvement project. Completion of the work for the project now looks to be delayed for another year. Construction originally commenced in October 2015. The Southern Motorway project Is intended to improve transport from Papakura to Manukau in Auckland and has a pricetag of US$177.85 million (NZ$268 million).

Widening a Lithuanian stretch of the Via Baltica from Kaunas to Marijampole to four lanes should be completed this year, the government said. Transport Minister Rokas Masiulis also said that the highway – also known as the pan-European E 67 - from Marijampole to the Polish border would be reconstructed by 2022. He said safety issues – 42 fatalities in the past 10 years - prompted the widening at a cost of nearly €90 million.

Ballooning land acquisition costs are pushing up the cost of the proposed 217km Dhaka-Chittagong Expressway, according to media reports.

Ballooning land acquisition costs are pushing up the cost of the proposed 217km Dhaka-Chittagong Expressway, according to media reports. Under the project, the highways directorate has already widened 190km of the two-lane highway to four-lanes and constructed three flyovers. The sources also said now the agency has estimated the cost for constructing the full 217km at nearly US$2.4 billion without land acquisition cost.

Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT) is working on plans to replace the Howard Franklin Bridge. The project is now expected to cost US$814 million, an increase from the $750 million originally envisaged. The contract is expected to be awarded in 2019, with construction commencing in 2020. The first stage of the project should be ready for use in 2024, providing a significant increase in daily capacity and boosting the emergency evacuation capacity also. The new bridge will carry four lanes of traffi

The contract for Israel’s Road 16 project has been awarded to a partnership between the local firm Shapir Engineering and the Italian company Pizzarotti. Construction work is due to commence in 2019 and is scheduled for completion in 2023, with the work expected to cost US$269.2 million. The Route 16 package of works for the engineering team comprises building a 5km road section that includes two tunnel sections and new interchanges.

A tale of woe surrounds Colombia’s La Linea Tunnel project, which is still incomplete. The project has been beset by a serious of issues including unexpectedly poor geological conditions, contractors having the wrong kind of insurance, insufficient funds for work to continue and in more recent times, further geological problems. While the Tolima end of the link is now close to completion, work still remains to be done at the Quindio end of the tunnel. Measuring 315m long, the La Gata section is now largely

Algeria is seeing a major improvement in road safety due to a combination of better driver education and tougher enforcement actions. Official figures show a 59% drop in road crashes in the last three years. In the period from 1st January to 17th August 2014 there were 24,388 recorded road crashes compared with 20,631 for the same period in 2015, 14,452 in 2016, 10,505 in 2017 and 6,928 in 2018. During the first seven months of 2018 there were 5,076 road crashes in Algeria, which resulted in 1,512