News

Indonesia’s state-owned toll operator, Jasa Marge, is bidding for two major toll road projects. The toll road operating concessions are for the Balikpapan-Samarinda and Manado-Bitung routes. The 99m Balikpapan-Samarinda toll road will connect capital Jakarta with East Kalimantan province. By 2018, the 39km Manado-Bitung toll road will run between the western and eastern parts of North Sulawesi. Jasa Marga has also found the financing necessary to fund the Medan-Kuala Namu-Tebing Tinggi toll road in Deli

St Petersburg Committee’s for Transport Infrastructure Development (KRTI) is setting out a strategy for road infrastructure development. The KRTI says that the city’s road network will be extended from 3,350 to 3,510 km in the 2015-2020 period. Meanwhile the KRTI also hopes to improve the condition of the city’s roads. At present around 30% of the city’s roads are in a poor state but the plans call for this to be reduced to 15% by 202 following the introduction of better road maintenance planning. A major p

Colombia’s National Infrastructure Agency (ANI), has awarded a consortium led by Spanish construction firm, Sacyr, a contract for work on the Pasto to Rumichaca highway. The route lies near Colombia’s border with Ecuador. This project forms part of the second wave of 4G road concessions being awarded. A second carriageway will be built for 80km between Ipiales and Catumbuco, with six road intersections, 2.6km of tunnels and 1.5km of bridges, pontoons and viaducts. The SAC 4G consortium comprises Sacyr and H

Caterpillar is setting up a regional training centre in Dubai. This new technical and sales training centre will be used to support more than 7,000 Cat dealer technicians in the Africa and Middle East (AME) Region. The company is investing over US$7 million in the facility, which will cover an area of about 1,700m2 and employ 40 personnel. Most of the team will be high-level technical staff who will primarily be recruited from the region. The facility will help support the technicians at AME Cat dealer

Russia is setting out its budget plans for transport infrastructure investment. In all a healthy US$43.92 billion is being planned for transport infrastructure development in Russia during the 2016-2018 period. This will be used to maintain and repair existing routes as well as to develop new links. Road projects figure highly in the spending although investments will also be made into rail and air transportation.

Uganda is requesting a loan worth some US$145 million from the World Bank. The loan has been recommended by the Ugandan Parliament. Provided by the World Bank's International Development Association (IDA), the funding will help pay for Uganda’s the road connectivity development project. This will focus on work in the country’s Albertine Region districts over a five-year period. The road connectivity development project will boost access to infrastructure and help develop the economy of the Albertine Region.

Bertha, one of the world’s largest tunnelling machines will resume work underneath the US city of Seattle in November, nearly two years after breaking down. Bertha, at 17.4m diameter, began her journey in July 2013. She was boring a path to relocate a 3.2km stretch of the elevated State Route 99 Alaskan Way Viaduct, built between 1949 and 1953 and which carries around 100,000 vehicles daily. The elevated section will be moved underground allowing the creation of public space along Seattle’s downtown w

Pan-European moves to tackle drink driving reveal that many still take to the wheel while over the limit for alcohol. The results from week-long operation to address drink driving run in June show that there were 16,497 alcohol offences from 1,104,879 breath tests in 26 countries. One in 66 drivers tested was over the limit in this year’s operation, compared with one in 63 last year and one in 59 in 2013. In addition, 2,752 drug offences were recorded, while over 2,516 other crimes were also detected during

In Paraguay the Ministry of Public Works and Communications (MOPC) in Paraguay plans to spend US$750 million on road repairs and construction. The work will be carried out in Alto Parana. This includes the country’s Export Corridor (Corredor de Exportacion) between Natalio and Pdte. The work includes work to the second bridge with Brazil, expansion of Ruta 7 on the Tape Pora section, recovery of the motorway between Katute-Ciudad del Este and the rehabilitation of Ruta 6, amongst other schemes. Expansion of

Indonesian road firm Jasa Marga will fund work on a major toll road project using a loan from state lenders, Bank Rakyat Indonesia (BRI), Bank Mandiri, Bank Negara Indonesia (BNI) and Bank Sumatera Utara (Bank Sumut). The US$212 million loan will finance work on Jasa Marga's Medan-Kuala Namu-Tebing Tinggi toll road. The route is 61.7km long and will connect Kuala Namu International Airport to other key areas.

Work on a major road project in Taiwan is facing delays due to unforeseen circumstances. Construction work on the Suhua Highway Improvement Project is being delayed due to the discovery of archeological remains. Work will now be stopped until the site can be excavated by archeologists. The remains are thought to be some 2,000 years old. Work on the US$1.5 billion project commenced in 2011.

Engineering specialists Mouchel and Hyder team are now working jointly on a feasibility study worth €1.87 million (£1.3 million). The contract is to investigate the feasibility of the proposed Trans-Pennine tunnel. This link would connect the cities of Manchester and Sheffield. The cost of the road tunnel running is expected to be high but a new route is needed as the existing connections are nearing capacity and from an environmental perspective, taking the traffic underground would be preferential. This s

Austrian contract STRABAG has won the tender process to widen the A3 Autobahn in southern Germany. The contract will see the firm widening the A3 to six lanes in a deal worth €90 million. The A3 connects the cities of Frankfurt and Nuremburg. STRABAG has been awarded the EO 287 contract to widen a 5.7km section of the road using asphalt construction methods in the state of Bavaria. It has also won the EO 259 contract to widen an 8.5km section of road using asphalt construction methods in the state of in Bad