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Upgrade work will be carried out on a road in Tanzania’s Kigoma Region now that financing has been secured. A loan worth US$257.7 million from The African Development Bank (AfDB) will help finance the work. The 260km road connects Manyovu with Kabingo and the work is expected to take 36 months to complete. The work is important as it will provide better transport to an area of Tanzania that has suffered from poor connectivity in the past.

Construction work is starting on two important road projects in Kenya. These are for the Dongo Kundu Southern Bypass and for the Mau Highway. The Mau highway project is worth US$2 billion and forms part of the route that links Kenya’s key port at Mombasa through its capital Nairobi to the border with neighbouring Uganda. The 180km Nairobi-Nakuru-Mau section of the A104 route will feature two lanes in either direction. The deal is being handled under a package that includes design, financing, maintenance a

Work is now starting on the 234km road that will connect the Ethiopian town of Togochale with Berbera Port in neighbouring Somalia. The project is being carried out in three phases and will cost US$400 million in all, with this first 72km section costing some $90 million. The project is of key importance to both countries, as well as for East Africa’s economy as a whole. Landlocked Ethiopia’s economy has been growing healthily in recent years but has been constrained by a lack of access to a port. Meanwhile

Construction work is starting in the Philippines for the new link that will connect the North Luzon Expressway (NLEx) and the South Luzon Expressway (SLEx). The project is costing nearly US$430 million, with the link being built by local toll road firm NLEX Corp. The new link road will be 8km long, running from the end of Harbor Link in Caloocan City to the Polytechnic University of the Philippines (PUP) in Santa Mesa of Manila. The road link will be elevated and the work is due for completion in 2021.

The contract for a major new expressway project in China has been won by a consortium. The Guizhou Jianhe-Liping Expressway should cost close to US$1.9 billion to build and take three years to construct. The group handling the work comprises CRRC Kunlun Investment Group Co and divisions of China Railway Construction Corporation Limited (CRCC). The expressway deal includes a 30 year concession to operate the tolled. Link. The project is being handled under the PPP model that includes viable gap funding, equi

Bentley Systems has opened its 2019 Year in Infrastructure 2019 Awards Programme to nominations. Winners will be selected and announced at the Year in Infrastructure 2019 Conference in Singapore, later in the year. The awards are judged by independent juries of industry experts and recognise infrastructure projects for digital innovations that improve project delivery and/or asset performance. The Year in Infrastructure Awards are an integral part of Bentley’s annual Year in Infrastructure Conference. The

A series of road upgrades are planned for Colombia’s Boyaca Department for the 2019-2020 period. One of the projects will be for work to a 20km section of the Transversal de Boyaca Route 60, which connects to the Magdalena Medio. Work will also be carried out on the Crucero-Pajarito stretch of the Transversal del Cusiana Route 62, including several bridge upgrades. Repaving work will be carried out on the Duitama-Presidente stretch of Route 55. Paving work is also planned for tertiary roads. In all 77km of

EU plans to improve road safety will include strengthening road infrastructure management, in a bid to reduce road fatalities and serious injuries. The changes will ensure that current rules used for motorways and other primary roads will be extended beyond the trans-European transport network (TEN-T). This will help improve road infrastructure safety and the directive will also cover roads outside urban areas that are built using EU funding. The proposal will introduce a network-wide road safety assess