News

Argentina’s Government is setting out plans to invest US$3 billion in developing the country’s transport infrastructure. The plans are being drawn up by the country’s Ministry of Transport and call for Argentina’s multi-lane highway network to be doubled in total length from its present 2,800km. The construction work will be managed by Argentina’s Government in a bid to push forward the programme. Poor road links in Argentina have been recognised as causing delayed journeys and increased transport costs. Up

The National Road No 2 project in Senegal is to benefit from partial funding being provided by the Abu Dhabi Fund for Development (ADFD). The new National Road No 2 project will run 336km and connect Ndioum, Ourossogui and Bakel, with the ADFD supplying US$14.4 million for the highway construction. The source of the remaining funding required for the project has yet to be announced. One the highway has been constructed it will help boost transport and lower journey times.

Repairs and improvement works will now go ahead on Nicaragua’s Pista Juan Pablo II highway in capital Managua. The project is expected to cost close to US$256 million to carry out. A portion of the funding required will come in the shape of a loan worth $105.5 million from the Central American Bank for Economic Integration (CABEI). Nicaragua’s Ministry of Treasury and Public Credit is aiming to receive the remainder of the funding necessary for the work through a loan from the European Investment Bank (EIB)

Italian contractor Astaldi has begun drilling two parallel tunnels as part of its S7 dual carriageway project in Poland. Each tunnel, between Naprawa and Skomielna Biala and under the Lubon Maly massif, will each be just over 2km long. Astaldi, based in Rome, won the three-year S7 dual carriageway project worth around €225 million in 2016 Work includes 38 bridges and viaducts and three motorway services. There will also be 25km of access roads and two junctions. The north-south S7, when complete

Hitachi Construction Machinery (Europe) NV (HCME) intends to reorganise its European manufacturing operations. The firm has two factories in Oosterhout and Amsterdam and is making the change in a bid to boost both efficiency and competitiveness, with this move planned to be complete by April 2018. The current Oosterhout factory is to focus its entire operation on mini and compact excavators, ranging from 1-8tonnes. Hitachi says that its market share in this segment has risen significantly in recent years

Infrastructure services company FM Conway has won two highways services contracts by the London Borough of Newham worth up to £40 million over four years. The two contracts cover highway maintenance and roads improvement schemes for Newham’s 419km of streets, including surfacing, civil engineering services, specialist road marking and drainage support. The new contracts build on the existing 10-year partnership.

IRF Geneva and FIA have enjoyed a longstanding collaboration for many years. Both organisations are very active in the field of road safety and are strongly advocating an effective implementation of the Decade of Action Plan and the newly adopted Sustainable Development Goals. With the objective of maximising reach and action, the two organisations have recently decided to join each other’s family: FIA has joined as a full member of the IRF Geneva and IRF Geneva has become an associate member of the FIA.

Bosnia is cancelling a tender for part of its Corridor 5C project, an integral part of the class-A north-south central European route E73. Route E73 runs around 700km from Hungary south through eastern Croatia to Bosnia and Herzegovina and the Adriatic Sea in the area of Ploče port. The longest part of this corridor goes through Bosnia and Herzegovina – nearly 340km. Director of the Bosnian motorways company Autoput FBiH, Adnan Terzic, confirmed the cancelled tender to the Bosnian daily newspaper Dnev

Work on Indonesia’s key Trans-Papua road project is now expected to complete in 2018, later than originally intended. The route will measure 4,300km when complete and work on 3,850km of the route has already been finished. The country’s Ministry of Public Works and Housing has said that the completion of the route will help cut transport costs, boosting competitiveness. But work on a 30km stretch of the road between Manokwari and Kibar has still to be finished due to various problems however.

Montenegro’s prime minister Dusko Markovic has given the thumbs up to progress of construction on the Klopot tunnel on the priority part of the Bar-Boljare motorway. He said that the works are being carried out according to the highest standards on 24km of the motorway. Markovic also said during his recent site visit that the government had allocated €194 million for motorway works in 2017. An additional €200-300 million will be set aside for completion of works.

The European Commission approved the financing package for the D3 motorway stretch Zilina, Strazov-Zilina, Brodno in Slovakia. The project is part of the Zilina by-pass. Approval was fast-tracked because the project had received an independent quality evaluation from the technical advisors of EU's JASPERS (Joint Assistance to Support Projects in European Regions). It was only the second project in Slovakia to do so. The 4.3km stretch is one of the most technically demanding projects in the country bec

A consortium that includes Hungarian firms Euroaszfalt and Duna Aszfalt has won the tender to construct a 30km section of the M4 motorway between Ullo and Albertirsa. Nearly €169 million will be invested in the project, according to Hungarian media. Other bidders were Kozgep of Hungary and Itinera of Italy. The M4 project is to link the Hungarian capital Budapest with Romania’s western border city of Oradea. The route will travel in Hungary through Cegléd – Szolnok – Karcag – Püspökladány – Berettyóúj