News

US civil engineering company Shimmick Construction, Italian peer Impregilo and a Spanish firm have been officially awarded the US$ 650 million contract for the Gerald Desmond Bridge in Long Beach, California. The groups were judged to have submitted the best technical and economic proposals for the bridge, which will measure approximately 610 metres in length and have around two kilometres of access ramps.

Stockholm motorists failing to pay their congestion charges now outnumber those who fail to pay their parking fines, according to new figures. The Swedish Enforcement Authority (Kronofogden) said that between December 2011 and July 2012, a total of 13,200 non-congestion charge payment cases were reported.

Key improvements will be made on stretches of key roads in Brazil’s Parana State. In all repairs and maintenance will be carried out to 16 stretches of road, totalling some 4.800km in all. This work is expected to cost US$29 million. However Parana State has a total budget for overall road improvements of $419 million. Of this, actual road repairs will cost around $203.25 million. Some $144 million will be used for road preservation works,$67 million for cleaning drainage systems and $129 million to improve

The Sarajevo Ring Road in Bosnia and Herzegovina is expected to be completed by October 2012. The construction of the 5.6km long highway from Josanica to Butila is being carried out by a consortium of companies made up of HP Investing and Strabag AG. The completed Ring Road will be part of the future Corridor Vc motorway.

The Ugandan government aims to raise US$950million for new road projects via contractor-financing agreements. The funds will be used to construct 1,900 km of roads in the country. Calls for expressions of interest have been published by the Uganda National Roads Authority (UNRA).

Close to US$13 billion of road projects are being planned by the authorities in Ho Chi Minh, Vietnam. The Ho Chi Minh (HCM) City Department of Planning and Investment is looking for funding for 19 year road projects. The city is seeking approval to go ahead with urgent public projects, especially those for reducing the impact of flooding and better traffic management. The city authorities are planning the bidding process for the projects, which will be carried out in the build-operate-transfer, build-transf

As part of a recent rail investment package, the Department for Transport has ring-fenced a US$100 million fund for safety improvements to level crossings between 2014 and 2019, and Optex has announced that its Redscan laser detector has been specified as part of a new solution to automate signalling and detect whether or not a level crossing is clear from vehicles and pedestrians before allowing a train to pass through.

The Nepalese Government plans to open a key expressway project to tender. The Ministry of Physical Planning works and Transport Management is inviting bidders to show their interest in the construction of the Kathmandu-Nijgadh-Pathlaiya Terai/Madesh Expressway project. This new road link is intended to be offered under a PPP/BOT model. The 76km expressway is expected to cost US$853 million to construct. A feasibility study has been carried out and the expressway will be designed to meet the Class – A Catego

The authorities in Uzbekistan are planning for a series of major road projects in a bid to boost the country’s transport connections and freight handling capabilities. A total of 2,306km of roads will be either built or upgraded in the country by 2015. Priority projects include building 1,008km of roads in the Beyneu-Andijan area, as well as rebuilding a 100km stretch of the Tashkent-Osh road. A total of 517km of roads and 544km of viaducts are to be to be built in 2012 under the plans.

In Romania the northern section of the bypass around the city of Constanta is open to traffic. The bypass forms part of the Pan-European Road Corridor IV and work on this section was financed by the European Bank for reconstruction and Development (EBRD). The southern stretch of the 23km bypass was completed in 2011. Now it is complete, the bypass will carry heavy port traffic away from Constanta. It will also provide a free-flowing route for tourist traffic from Romanian capital Bucharest and the north of

Austrian construction company Strabag’s “more than ambitious” €300million earnings before interest and taxes (EBIT) target cannot be achieved, according to the firm’s management board. The board say the projected EBIT can now only be reached by “about two thirds”. This is said to be partly due to the delays of public authorities in Central and Eastern Europe in dealing with claims, especially in Poland; the cautious valuation of some construction projects; and the “ruinous price war” in the raw materials b