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Key road construction projects are now moving forward in Bosnia with work on-track for the Sarajevo ringroad as well as the Corridor Vc highway. Construction of a 130km section of the Corridor Vc highway should be complete by 2014 according to Bosnia's Ministry of Transport and Telecoms. Work on the first section of the Sarajevo ringroad should be completed within five months, following the signing of an agreement worth €17 million between the Austrian firm Strabag and the Bosnian company HP Investing. The

The authorities in the Republic of Tatarstan plan to boost road spending in capital Kazan. Tatarstan is a small state belonging to the Russian Federation but its capital is the eighth largest city in Russia and is of economic importance given it is the home of various key industries. The new road repair budget will see some US$263 million spent during 2012, a considerable increase over previous annual investments. For each of the five years prior to 2012, road repair spending has been around 75% of this yea

In Siberia Novosibirsk-based company Sibmost has offered the lowest cost tender for a new bridge over the Yenisey River at US$394.7 million. The Krasnoyarsk-based Trasmost offered a bid of $450.6 million for the work while another Krasnoyarsk-based firm Sibiryak submitted a tender of $453.9 million for the bridge. This will be the fourth road bridge spanning the Yenisey River in Krasnoyarsk. All three companies said that the work will take 40 months to complete.

Belgian drivers committing traffic offences in France will be fined in Belgium as part of a new data exchange agreement between the two countries. The agreement, which comes into practice on 1 July, 2012, comes ahead of a new EU directive which will force member states to exchange certain traffic offence data from November 2013. The EU states will be required to provide the name and address of people committing eight specified violations, including speeding.

Parsons Brinckerhoff has been appointed the programme management consultant to Ashghal, the public works authority of Qatar, for a US$8 billion programme focusing on the construction and upgrade of local road and drainage projects throughout the country over a five-year period. The award was announced by Minister of Municipality and Urban Planning Sheikh Abdulrahman Bin Khalifa Al-Thani.

The Trans-European Transport Network Executive Agency (TEN-T EA) has launched a new campaign called “10 out of TEN” with the aim of showcasing successfully implemented TEN-T projects. The campaign highlights projects co-financed by this EU programme whose successful implementation contributed to yield regional, national and European added value and are helping to complete the TEN-T network.

Bucharest underground operator Metrorex has nearly finished plans to develop its new US$1.35billion M6 underground mainline to link the city centre with Henri Coanda International Airport. The new M6 in the Romanian capital will have a length of 14km and take in 12 stations. Metrorex has changed the initial project plans by adding two new stations to cover the residential area and Baneasa Commercial Park.

Kazan Mayor Ilsur Metshin said authorities would allocate US$263.14million to repair the city’s road network in 2012, compared to a total of $197.66million spent over the previous five years.

The Thai government's USD$ 3.83billion floodway project is set to be completed in 30 months. The project is part of an $11.18billion project on water resources management, which Thai authorities predict will permanently stop the flooding of the Chao Phraya River plain. The floodway project involves the building of a 2km road which acts as a dyke as well as two floodways. The government is also planning an irrigation system to enable farmers to plant two to three rice crops a year.

In Poland, the European Investment Bank has committed itself to maintaining its loan agreement for the A1 highway, despite recent problems over the project. The e1.1 billion loan that the EIB had agreed with Autostrada Poludnie for construction of a 180km section of the A1 highway from Strykow to Pyrzowice, will now be placed at the disposal of the Polish highway authorities. To carry out the work, Poland has to raise a further e503 million, which could be obtained from an issue of road bonds. Autostrada Po

While both the police and firefighting are recognised as occupations that carry dangers, nearly 13 per cent of the firefighters and police officers who die in the line of duty are killed in vehicle-related incidents, while fire trucks are involved in ten times as many collisions as other heavy trucks.

Following one of the coldest winters in recent memory, Britain’s roads have stacked up an estimated £10 billion (€11.5 billion) repair bill just for potholes. These are caused by the freeze/thaw cycle: water seeps into cracks in the road surface, expands when frozen and then breaks up when it thaws. It has been estimated that in Britain there is at least one pothole for every 110m (sometimes many more) and that it will take at least 15 years to fix the problem.

A bridge collapse at the weekend on Borneo Island in Indonesia’s East Kalimantan has injured 39 people and killed 11, while at least 30 are missing and presumed drowned. The entire deck of the 720m long suspension bridge collapsed, plunging a bus as well as trucks, cars and motorcycles into the Mahakam River. The bridge was completed in 2002 but suffered serious damage to one of its supports last year when it was struck by a coal carrying barge and has been hit on several previous occasions by vessels plyin