News

The authorities in Serbia are pushing ahead with plans for the Corridor 10 and Corridor 11 highways. Serbia's national state owned highway company, Koridori Srbije, has awarded the contract for advisory services for the €1.9 billion Corridor 10 project to French company Egis International. Under the terms of the deal Egis will provide support for construction of 83.4km of the E-80 highway between the City of Nis and the Bulgarian border at Dimitrovgrad.

Plans for a new highway connecting Saudi Arabia and Egypt are now commencing. The US$3 billion highway will improve transport connections between the two countries. This 32km link will run between Nassrani in Egypt and Ras Hamid in Saudi Arabia, passing the Tiran Strait. A technical committee is holding discussions on the project shortly.

The combined half-year accounts of the merged Royal Haskoning and DHV showed profits up 9% despite the tough market conditions. Both former companies contributed equally to an operating profit (EBITA) over the first six months of 2012 at €13.9 million.

The authorities in Oman are setting out plans for a major new highway project to improve connectivity in the country. The tender process is underway for the project management contract for the Batinah Expressway. Oman's Ministry of Transport and Communications is inviting bids from consultancy firms to manage the project, which will be divided into six construction packages.

A major new expressway will link Tizi-Ouzou in Algeria to the country’s East-West highway. The local authorities have been given a budget of US$623 million for the project. The expressway will connect to the East-West highway at Bouira. The project forms part of the 2010-14 five year plan and is required as the existing route linking Tizi-Ouzou to the East-West highway, the TN 12, is now carrying more vehicles than it was designed for.

Continued improvements in road safety are being seen in Denmark. The latest official data from the Danish Road Directorate (Vejdirektoratet) reveals a continued drop in fatal accidents. In July 2012 Denmark saw four fatalities on the country’s roads, the same figure as seen in July in the previous years. This is the lowest figure since the statistics were first recorded in 1985.

The city of Hyderabad has announced an ambitious 12-month plan to install a new city-wide traffic signal system called the Hyderabad Traffic Integrated Management System (HTRIMS). The US $12 million contract, which was awarded to Bharath Electronics Limited (BEL) earlier this month, aims to upgrade traffic signals at 180 existing junctions across the busy city and bring a further 41 new junctions into the system.

The Punjab state government has approved a new national highway repair and maintenance budget of US $27 million (Rs 150 crore). Public works minister Sharanjit Singh Dhillon said that the decision was taken at a “high-level” emergency meeting held earlier this month to review the way in which the Indian state is running it ongoing road construction and maintenance programme.

The number of Montreal’s bridges and tunnels in a “critical” condition has more than doubled during the past 12 months, says a shocking new report looking at the state of the city’s transport infrastructure. The new report, which came out this month, shows that 27 of the city’s 587 highway structures reached “critical condition” in 2011 compared with only 12 in 2010.

VicRoads, the highways authority for the Australian state of Victoria, has endorsed a major state road project for the first time under its new INVEST five star rating system aimed at encouraging innovation and sustainability in road building. The Western Freeway Anthonys Cutting Alliance’s planning, design and construction management of the US$ 207.3 million (AUS $200 million) freeway link between Melton and Bacchus Marsh was backed by INVEST’s

Major road development is underway in Azerbaijan at present, with network expansion needed to help capitalise on the country’s strong extraction industry. The country’s Ministry of Transport has said that 225km of roads have been built in the first half of 2012. This construction work has required investments of close to US$901 million.

The US Government is looking to ensure that unused funding for infrastructure projects will be used efficiently. Those projects that have stalled due to other issues may see existing funding reassigned to other infrastructure projects that are further ahead. The US Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood is making over US$470 million earmarked for projects

Manitou Group’s (MG) operating profit rose by 22% to €31 million in the first half of 2012, compared to €25 million over the same period of 2011. The France-headquartered Group also saw its 2012 first half year revenue increase by 20% to €672 million, having recorded €562 million revenue in the first six months of the previous year. Meanwhile, MG net income was up 40% to €21 million in the first half of 2012, from €15 million over the same period of 2011.