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Romania, Bulgaria and Hungary have Europe’s most dangerous roads according to official data from Eurostat. In 2017 Romania had 1,951 road deaths while Bulgaria had 682 road deaths and Hungary had 625 road deaths. The EU average for road deaths was 5/100,000 of population in 2017, with a total of 25,257 road deaths during the year. This is a marked drop from the 43,000 road deaths across the EU in 2007.

A series of loans is helping pay for the 11 major road and bridge projects currently underway in Costa Rica. In all the projects involve US$1.13 billion of financing. One of the biggest projects is the $495 million upgrade work being carried out for Ruta 32, between Rio Fri and Limon. Other major projects include the $200 million upgrade for the La Angostura to Limonal route, the $163 million improvement to the Circunvalacion Norte, $66 million for a new flyover in Cartago and $25 million for the Sixaola bi

Construction work is underway for Mexico’s Atizapan-Atlacomulco motorway project. The project will now be complete in 2021, although it was originally planned to be ready for traffic in 2016. A series of delays hit the contractor originally working on the project, which then resulted in Mexico’s Secretariat of Communications and Transport (SCT) awarding the contract to another group. The concession for the project is now being handled by Aleatica.

New road building work for two key links in Ho Chi Minh City in Vietnam is expected to cost US$124 million. Truong Chinh street and Tan Ky Tan Quy street will be widened to boost capacity and cut congestion. The former will feature five to six lanes in either direction once the work is complete. The latter will feature three lanes in either direction once the work is complete. Considerable site clearance work will have to be carried out for the work to go ahead.

A new road bypass project is being built for the Moroccan city of Berkane. Located in the west of the country, close to the Algerian border, the city of Berkane is bisected at present by the key N2 highway, which meets with the R612 trunk route. The new bypass will carry through traffic using these routes around the city instead, cutting congestion at peak periods and improving journey times for drivers. In addition the new bypass will also improve traffic safety and help with the development of Bekane. The

Tests by the Transport Research Laboratory (TRL) in the UK show that the use of rumble strips could significantly reduce crashes.

A legal battle is facing the UK’s Silvertown Tunnel project. A consortium called STC and comprising Dragados and Hochtief is presenting a legal case over the project. According to STC, there are issues over the way in which the preferred bidder for the work has been selected. The work is for a new tunnel under the River Thames in the east of London. The project is expected to cost £1 billion. The Riverlinx consortium is currently the preferred bidder. Building the tunnel will help reduce congestion. The

New state-owned roads are opening in Russia for 2019. The state-owned road firm Avtodor is to see its network grow by 202km by the end of 2019. The key link opening for traffic will be the new M11 highway connecting capital Moscow with St Petersburg. The final stretches of the M11 are now being finished. Of the 202km to be finished by the end of 2019, around 56km have been built already and 103km will be completed shortly. In all Avtodor has built 1,053km of highways in the last 10 years while the plans cal