News

Progress is being seen in China with the development of the country’s first undersea tunnel. The new tunnel will be located in Shenzhen and is expected to take three years to construct, once work commences at the end of 2018. The 8.05km connection will run between the Dachan Bay toll Gate on the Shenzhen-Guangzhou Riverside Expressway and Yueliangwan Boulevard in Qianhai. The tunnel stretch will be 1.1km long, with a 4.45km road connection at the Dachan Bay end and a 2.5km road link located in Qianhai.

A new bridge project is expected to boost transport in and out of a key port in Vietnam. Approval is being sought to go ahead with the bridge for the port of Haiphong, which lies on the coast close to the city of Hanoi. The project is expected to cost nearly US$304 million.

A new bridge project is being planned for the German city of Bonn. The city has three bridges crossing the Rhein River, the North, South and Kennedy Bridges. The North Bridge is in need of replacement as it is no longer able to meet the city’s traffic needs. The existing structure will be demolished and replaced with a new bridge in a project worth €205 million. Plans should be ready for the new link in 2020, with construction expected to commence in 2028.

A new highway section is now open to traffic in the UAE. This highway is designed to connect the north and south of Ras Al Khaimah emirate, extending from the Emirates Road. The new highway features three lanes in either direction, with a maximum speed limit of 140km/h and is designed to carry up to 60,000 vehicles/day. Featuring 10 intersections the Ras Al Khaimah Ring Road will measure 30km-long when complete. Work is being carried out on a number of bridges along the route with the rest of the highway li

Work is starting shortly on rebuilding a stretch of Toronto’s FG Gardiner Expressway. The US$248 million project to upgrade section 1 of the route will be handled by the Aecon Group. Work will start in the third quarter of 2018 and should be finished by the end of 2020. Aecon Group’s contract calls for rebuilding work to three ramps plus a complete replacement of the FG Gardiner Expressway between Jarvis Street and Cherry Street. Other features of the work will include new street lighting systems being inst

A new highway project is planned for Cambodia that will improve transport connections to and from its capital, Phnom Penh and the coastal area, Preah Sihanouk. Construction is scheduled to commence in November 2018, with the 190km route expected to cost in the order of US$1.8 billion. The Cambodian Government is managing the project itself, through the Ministry of Public Works. Once the highway is complete it will provide an improved transport link between Phnom Penh and the port of Sihanoukville.

A new report suggests that the global bitumen market will hit US$110 billion/year by 2024. This new report has been compiled by the market research and strategy consulting firm, Global Market Insights, Inc. The report includes key industry contributions from Chevron Texaco, British Petroleum, Total SA, Indian Oil Corporation, China Petroleum and Chemical Corporation and Shell. It also includes JX Nippon Oil & Energy, NuStar Energy, Petroleos Mexicanos, Villas Austria GmbH, Bouygues SA, Marathon Oil, Exxon

French construction machine manufacturer Mecalac is expanding its operations with a key acquisition. The Mecalac Group is adding to its range of products by taking over production of a range of compact wheeled loaders, currently being manufactured by the French company Pichon. The deal will be finalised on January 1st, 2019. The Pichon firm specialises in the design and manufacture of agricultural equipment and is based at Landivisiau in Brittany (France). Following the deal, Pichon will cease production of

A series of new road projects have been awarded in Saudi Arabia, with the work being spread broadly across the country’s main urban areas. In all 23 new road projects are now going ahead, with a total value of US$461.3 million. The country's Transport Ministry has awarded 75 road projects in all under its road improvement plans. Of the 23 road contracts awarded most recently, seven will be for roads located in Makkah and six for roads in Riyadh. A further four contracts will be for roads in Assir, while two

A pan-European research project is investigating the use of electro-fragmentation to help recycle fibre-reinforced concrete (FRC). Increasingly used in civil applications such as tunnels and bridge decks, FRC can be challenging to recycle because of the difficulty in separating the tiny fibres from the concrete material. “Most of the research into FRC is about the formulation or the application of the material,” said Kathy Bru, a process engineer at research organisation BRGM. “We are looking ahead 20 or 3