News

The Australian government has pledged US$79 million to the Northern Australia Beef Roads Fund to upgrade roads used to transport cattle from farm gates to markets. The government’s cash injection has pleased many beef producers in northern Australia which supplies an estimated 90% of the country's cattle exports worth around $2.4 billion. Transportation costs can be up to 35% of a livestock's price because they sometimes must be transported several hundred kilometres to market, according to media repo

Brunei has awarded Chinese infrastructure construction company China Harbor Engineering Company (CHEC) the US$204 million Pulau Muara Besar Bridge, Road and Utilities project through an open tender. CHEC reportedly signed the deal with the Brunei Economic Development Board on May 6, according to Chinese media. Pulau Muara Besar is a 955ha island in Brunei Bay, immediately across from Brunei’s largest port town, Muara, on the mainland. The island is undergoing major infrastructure development including

Transportation infrastructure, including many roads, in three autonomous states in China's Guizhou province will be enhanced by 2018. The state of Qiandongnan, Qiannan and Qianxinan will get a new 1,150km highway as well as 634km of new rail line, including high-speed routes. The states will also be served by more air routes and get an expansion of Xingyi Wanfenglin airport as well construction of a new airport, Luodian. Meanwhile, in China's Anhui province, construction starts in June of the 39.25

A Balfour Beatty joint venture with South West Highways has been awarded a €55 million 10-year extension to its contract for operations and maintenance on the 102km A30/A35 main Exeter to Bere Regis road. The contract is on behalf of Connect Roads for ultimate customer Highways England, the newly named government roads agency. The joint venture – SWHBBIS - was appointed as the operations and maintenance contractor for this stretch of the trunk road in 1996. In 2006, the joint venture was re-appointed

People park in the smallest of places, despite the best efforts of urban street designers and town planners to ensure an orderly arrangement of suitably spaced cars. Surly some spaces are just too small to park even the smallest car. But the city of Bristol, in southwest England, has taken no chances and has painted the double yellow ‘no parking’ lines in areas no one in their right mind could squeeze a car. Click here to see just how small the space is that authorities in Bristol have felt they need

The completion of Colombia’s long-running La Linea Tunnel project is now in sight, finally. Colombia’s president, Juan Manuel Santos, and vice president, German Vargas Lleras, made a joint announcement that the 8.65km long tunnel will be inaugurated in November 2016. The two tunnel drives (from Quindio and Tolima) have now met in the middle and only lining works are left to be completed. Once the tunnel is operational, it will enable trucks to complete the journey between Cajamarca (Tolima) and Calarca (Qui

Western Australia is receive an extra US$397 million (A$499 million) in road funding from the Australian Government. This is in order to make up for a huge fall in the state’s revenues, due at least in part to the drop in mining activity. The Australian Government believes the funding will allow Western Australia to proceed with its plans to construct key infrastructure projects.

The Colombian Vice President, German Vargas Lleras, has announced that two proposals have been received to build the Santana-Mocoa-Neiva motorway. This road has a budget of US$627.22 million is one of the nine initiatives the National Infrastructure Agency (ANI) has included in the second wave of 4G motorway projects. The two companies interested in carrying out the work are Concesionaria Vias del Desarrollo 4 and Infraestructura Vial para Colombia. Concesionaria Vias del Desarrollo 4 consists of C

Major Polish construction company Budimex has said that only one out of its 15 road tender bids submitted this year to the Polish General Directorate for National Roads and Motorways (GDDKiA) has had the lowest price. In 2014, its bidding effectiveness stood at one in four. Budimex said it is concerned that a price war is returning to the Polish construction market. Differences in the prices proposed by bidders are huge and that prices offered by its rivals are too low and are unrealistic. It has b

Serbia has entered into “in depth” negotiations with two Chinese companies for concession contracts along the Corridor 11 motorway between Belgrade and the Montenegrin border. Shandong High Speed Group and the China Road and Bridge Corporation (CRBC) are the two Chinese companies that have passed the pre-qualification process. The project value has not been mentioned. Serbian vice president Zorana Mihajlovic said that the Chinese have requested guarantees for transport and Serbia is considering this a

Chinese contractors are interested in a series of highway projects in the Czech Republic. One of the Czech projects attracting the Chinese interest is for the R4 express road, which will cost in the region of €274 million to construct. The tender process for this project will open in early 2016. The Czech Transport Ministry says that several Chinese firms are interested in a number of the country’s PPP projects. Another project in focus will be for the R7 Prague-Chomutov road, which will be built after the

A consortium comprising four contractors is carrying out construction of Algeria’s new Tizi-Hacine road link. The 18km road project in Mascara Province is costing US$205.34 million to build. The project is for the second part of the highway linking Mascara to the East-West motorway. The consortium comprises four Spanish-Algerian companies including Sarl Benzamia, Irrigout, CHM and LIC. Meanwhile work on the 25km stretch of road linking Hacine to the East-West highway is also commencing. This work is to be c

China's Exim Bank has paid €94.30 million as the first installment for construction of the first part of the Bar-Serbian border motorway. Montenegro’s minister of finance, Radoje Zugic, said that construction is expected to begin within the next few weeks. Exim Bank has approved 85% of the total €810 million load, payable over 20 years, for construction of the first part of 49km of the motorway. Is set at 2% with a grace period of six years. Total length of the motorway will be 170km.