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A series of loans is helping pay for the 11 major road and bridge projects currently underway in Costa Rica. In all the projects involve US$1.13 billion of financing. One of the biggest projects is the $495 million upgrade work being carried out for Ruta 32, between Rio Fri and Limon. Other major projects include the $200 million upgrade for the La Angostura to Limonal route, the $163 million improvement to the Circunvalacion Norte, $66 million for a new flyover in Cartago and $25 million for the Sixaola bi

Construction work is underway for Mexico’s Atizapan-Atlacomulco motorway project. The project will now be complete in 2021, although it was originally planned to be ready for traffic in 2016. A series of delays hit the contractor originally working on the project, which then resulted in Mexico’s Secretariat of Communications and Transport (SCT) awarding the contract to another group. The concession for the project is now being handled by Aleatica.

New road building work for two key links in Ho Chi Minh City in Vietnam is expected to cost US$124 million. Truong Chinh street and Tan Ky Tan Quy street will be widened to boost capacity and cut congestion. The former will feature five to six lanes in either direction once the work is complete. The latter will feature three lanes in either direction once the work is complete. Considerable site clearance work will have to be carried out for the work to go ahead.

Serbia is planning to build the new Sumadijski Koridor motorway. The project is expected to cost €1.7 billion to €2 billion to build. Financing is being provided by the Serbian Government. The final alignment has yet to be determined but the route is expected to measure from 220km to 270km in length. The new highway will connect with other key road links and will be called the Vozd Karadjordje.

A new road bypass project is being built for the Moroccan city of Berkane. Located in the west of the country, close to the Algerian border, the city of Berkane is bisected at present by the key N2 highway, which meets with the R612 trunk route. The new bypass will carry through traffic using these routes around the city instead, cutting congestion at peak periods and improving journey times for drivers. In addition the new bypass will also improve traffic safety and help with the development of Bekane. The

Indonesia is planning a massive development of its infrastructure, with transport being a key priority. The 2020 budget at $27.64 billion is 4.9% greater than the $26.37 billion set for 2019. The largest portion of the budget will be used for road building, with plans to expand the major road network by 837km, a significant jump from the 406km of roads for 2019. In addition, 6.9km of new bridges will be built in 2020. Also figuring in the transport plans will be 239km of rail links and three airports. Addit

Tests by the Transport Research Laboratory (TRL) in the UK show that the use of rumble strips could significantly reduce crashes.

New state-owned roads are opening in Russia for 2019. The state-owned road firm Avtodor is to see its network grow by 202km by the end of 2019. The key link opening for traffic will be the new M11 highway connecting capital Moscow with St Petersburg. The final stretches of the M11 are now being finished. Of the 202km to be finished by the end of 2019, around 56km have been built already and 103km will be completed shortly. In all Avtodor has built 1,053km of highways in the last 10 years while the plans cal

A loan from the World Bank worth US212 million to the Kenyan Government for road works has been cancelled. The loan was to have been used to build new road connections in capital Nairobi, including a link with Jomo Kenyatta International Airport. Another road to have been funded by the finance package from the World Bank was the A104, connecting James Gichuru with Rironi, located the north west of the Kenyan capital. However, the upgrade work for this 16km stretch of dual carriageway has become shrouded i