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Aecom is to deliver technical advice for design work and maintenance supervision for 60km of highway surrounding Belfast, Northern Ireland. Aecom was chosen by Highway Management (City) which since 2006 has been working on a 30-year design, build, finance and operation contract for the highways, known as DBFO1 network. DBFO1 covers 60km of the highways surrounding Belfast, including the M1, M2, M3, M5, M22, A8(M) and A12 corridors.

Foreign financing looks likely for much of Colombia’s 4G road programme. Colombia's national infrastructure agency, ANI, has said that there are 13 funding sources from outside of the country that are keen to provide financing for the 4G road development plan. Those showing an interest include pension funds and capital funds. Chinese and Middle Eastern financing for Colombian road development is also a possibility. The list of financing sources already involved in Colombia’s 4G programme includes JP Morgan

Several new road bridges are being built in El Salvador’s La Paz Department as part of a highway improvement project.

The first section of the Cardel-Poza Rica highway has now been opened to traffic. The highway is in Mexico’s Veracruz State and the 30-year concession is being handled jointly by Mota-Engil and PRODI, which was awarded the tender by Mexico’s Secretariat of Communications and Transport (SCT) in mid-2014 with a bid of US$266.5 million. This first stretch of the highway that is now in use is the 55km section that runs from Nautla to Gutierrez Zamora. This stretch features 11 bridges, 11 underpasses and five

Italian contractor Astaldi will construct the 1.76km-long road tunnel underneath the Swina River in northern Poland.

Newly available crash data suggests an improvement in road safety in Kenya. In the period from January 1st to May 14th 2018, there were 1,095 traffic incidents, compared with 1,139 for the same period in 2017. The number of people being killed or seriously injured also dropped to 4,193, compared with 4,676 for the same period in the previous year. The figures were released by Kenya’s National Transport and Safety Authority, which said that primary factors involved in crashes included driving under the influ

Newly available crash data suggests an improvement in road safety in Kenya. In the period from January 1st to May 14th 2018, there were 1,095 traffic incidents, compared with 1,139 for the same period in 2017. The number of people being killed or seriously injured also dropped to 4,193, compared with 4,676 for the same period in the previous year. The figures were released by Kenya’s National Transport and Safety Authority, which said that primary factors involved in crashes included driving under the influ

Construction work on Kenya’s vital Mombasa-Nairobi highway upgrade project is now going ahead as planned. A resolution has been achieved that will solve the funding issues that had threatened to delay the project. The project will cost nearly US$3 billion in all and is crucial for the country’s economic development as it will provide a new four lane highway connecting Kenya’s capital, Nairobi, with its largest port at Mombasa. But there were concerns that the funding method based on a series of loans that w

A key financing package has been secured for the first phase of Sri Lanka’s Central Expressway project. Funding worth US$1 billion is being provided by China’s Exim Bank for the highway. Construction of this route will improve transport between the port of Colombo and the port of Hambantota.

Contractor VAD now looks likely to carry out rebuilding work for the northern stretch of St Petersburg’s Ring Road. This section of the ring road runs between the Priozerskoye Highway and the Western High-Speed Diameter route. VAD’s bid for the 14.3km stretch has received approval from the tender commission. The work will cost just over US$100 million to be carried out and should be complete by November 2020.

There has been an increase in the number of road crashes in Belgium around work zone sites. This problem has been identified by Belgium’s traffic safety institute, VIAS. In 2014 there were 588 road crashes around road work zones in Belgium. However the data shows that in 2016, there were 764 crashes around work zone areas. An increase in the number of road repair jobs is thought to be a factor in this jump in crashes in work zones. Of note is that comparatively few of the crashes occur on major highway rout

The lack of maintenance and investment into road infrastructure has once again raised its head within the African road construction and development sector. This puts pressure on contractors and maintenance teams across everywhere, in turn putting businesses at risk. How to manage road maintenance in today’s economic climate will be the focus of the upcoming African Road Infrastructure and Investment Congress, coming to Cape Town September 4-6. The theme Accelerating Road Development will address the

Bilbao in northern Spain is suffering from increasing levels of vehicle congestion, a problem the city authorities intend to tackle. Two major civil engineering projects have been proposed in a bid to address the problem. One of the projects would be to drive a 3km tunnel under the main estuary, improving transport and traffic flow between the north and south of the city. The tender process for a feasibility study into this project I being put to tender. Meanwhile the second major project proposed would be