News

Construction work on Colombia’s two key tunnel projects is being delayed, with insufficient funding proving a major challenge. Both the Toyo Tunnel and La Linea Tunnel projects are behind schedule. In addition, the project to construct the Pumajero Bridge is also being delayed due to a lack of funds.Part of the problems is that the designs for these projects have been revised as construction work has progressed. However the additional funds to pay for the new design features added have not been fully

The Vietnamese Government has given the go-ahead for work on a key section of the country’s North-South highway project. This 7.5km stretch of the route will run between District 2's National Highway 22 and Hiep Phuoc Industrial Park. The work will cost US$365.4 million to carry out as it includes building the Phuoc Kieng, No 1, Rach Dia and Ba Chiem bridges. Located just to the south of Ho Chi Minh City, the Hiep Phuoc Industrial Park is in a delta area, which will require the construction of the bridge se

Belgium is benefiting from a much-needed gain in road safety. The country has had the worst record for road safety of any Western European nation for some years but now appears to be addressing the issue with positive results being achieved. Road deaths for the first six months of 2018 dropped by 14% to 191 compared with 221 for the same period in the previous year. The number of injuries arising from road crashes dropped 1.7% to 23,458 for the first six months of 2018, compared with 23,865 for the same

This time next year Austria will be the first European country to have vehicles that collect safety‐relevant traffic information in real‐time. “We’re going for it,” Marko Jandrisits, the telematics services programme manager for Austria’s publicly own road and toll company ASFiNAG, said the tender for equipping the Austrian motorway network with the hardware and software for C-ITS – cooperative ITS - had just been launched. “The future is here,” said Jandrisit on the stand of AustriaTech at the ITS W

Bulgaria is seeing an improvement in its latest road safety statistics. In 2017 there were 6,888 crashes on Bulgaria’s road network, a drop of 7% from the previous year. Meanwhile 6,800 people were injured in road crashes in Bulgaria in 2017 while there were 682 road related fatalities in the same period. The improved road safety presents a notable and positive change for Bulgaria. However the country still had the second highest rate of road fatalities/head of population of any country in the EU.

Work is well underway on a major road project in Argentina. Construction of National Road 19 is on schedule, with 30% of the necessary work having been carried out so far. The project is costing US$164.8 million and the highway will stretch 155km between San Francisco and Rio Primero.

Plans are in hand for the construction of the Sydney Gateway project, which will now see an improved connection to the city’s airport. The highway at St Peters will now be extended to Sydney Airport. The work will cost US$1.85 billion (A$2.6 billion) and will be funded jointly by the Australian Government and Sydney Airport. The work should be completed by 2023. The route will not be tolled.

A major new expressway project is being planned in the UK to connect the university cities of Oxford and Cambridge. The preferred route for the project has now been announced by the UK’s Department for Transport (DfT). The construction work is likely to cost around €4.58 billion (£4.1 billion). Work to the route will include connecting existing stretches to new sections of dual carriageway. There has been criticism of the project however from the Wildlife Trust, which says that the preferred route will dama