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Work is underway on a widening and upgrade project for the RN1 national road. The improvement project will see the route becoming a section of the North-South highway. The upgrade includes adding additional lanes, effectively doubling the width of the road. The improvement works to national road RN 1 are being carried out over its 800km length and the project should be completed at the end of 2016. Also in Algeria, a legal case is ongoing regarding the East-West highway project. Allegations of corruption h

Thankfully it doesn’t happen too often, but forgetting where you parked your car can be an embarrassing moment, or several days, as one man in the UK recently found. Jason Matthews, 40, ran the Manchester City Marathon on April 19 in five hours and 11 minutes and then spent an additional several hours looking for his Saab 93 Sport. He said he couldn’t recall where he had parked the vehicle. He walked back around some of the 26-mile – nearly 42km - course, before driving around in a taxi for 40 minutes an

Indonesian state construction firm Waskita Karya said it will be developing the US$2.7 billion Bali toll road project. But the Ministry of Public Works and Housing has yet to approve the 157km project which is in the pre-feasibility study stage. Waskita Karya’s finance director Tunggul Rajagukguk also said the company might seek nearly $1.8 billion of financing this year for not just road projects but also power transmission work. Financing could be around half through bond issuance and the other half v

3M, a maker of workzone safety products, has again donated US$20,000 to the 3M Visibly Safer Work Zones Project. Now in its fourth year, the project supports programmes of the American Traffic Safety Services Foundation (ATSSF) and the American Road and Transportation Builders Association Transportation Development Foundation (ARTBA-TDF) that provide scholarships for children of roadway construction workers killed or permanently disabled on the job. To date, the project has donated $50,000 to the ATSSF’s

Half of UK drivers in a recent survey admitted to breaking traffic laws and half of these drivers said they did it with intention. Of the drivers who willingly broke the law, half acknowledged they did it because they believed there was little chance of getting caught, or they simply did not agree the law and saw no reason to obey. Road safety charity Brake and vehicle insurance company Direct Line said the survey reveals a worrying attitude by many road users toward safety on highways. Brake said that U

Dynasol, a global maker of synthetic rubber, much of it destined for large off-road vehicles including construction equipment, will boost its production. Dynasol is a joint venture formed in 1999 by Repsol and Grupo Kuo. Dynasol will focus on developing products for the high-performance tyre which uses synthetic rubber as a raw material and accounts for 70% of the synthetic rubber demand worldwide. The joint venture will have an estimated revenue of US$750 million and will produce more than 500,000 tons a

In Indonesia, state-controlled toll road operator Jasa Marga has secured a loan worth nearly US$124 million to finance its Medan-Kualanamu-Tebing Tinggi (MKTT) toll road project. The loan is secured from a consortium of banks that include Bank BRI, Bank Mandiri and Bank BNI. The total cost of the project is around $315 million. The tender process of the project is being conducted and the winning bidder will be revealed in May. Jasa Marga operates and manages 13 toll road concessions directly and nin

Colombia's finance minister Mauricio Cardenas said the country will gain access to a loan of US$400 million the Central American Bank for Economic Integration (CABEI) for infrastructure projects. Around $200 million will finance 4G motorway concessions. The rest will be used on projects that involve CABEI founding members such as Nicaragua, El Salvador, Costa Rica, Honduras and Guatemala. The announcement was made during the 55th CABEI governors’ assembly in Medellin, Columbia, in April. Colombia has

Brazilian conglomerate Odebrecht plans to invest around US$1.5 billion in Peru this year, the company’s head of operations for Peru said. Ricardo Boleira, said has 15 contracts for 2015 and the total value of its operations in the country stands at $13.7 billion. Around $2 billion has been invested in roads, with upwards of $500 million in irrigation projects and $900 million for energy contracts. Odebrecht is a family-owned business started in 1944 and operates in construction, petrochemicals, transp

In the UK, Colas is near completion of the Thornbury Barracks roundabout aimed to reduce traffic congestion on the A647 highway, the principal link between Leeds and Bradford in the county of West Yorkshire. Traffic signals have been placed on the junction, with central running lanes constructed through the previous roundabout. Michael Holmes, Colas business manager for the Leeds area, explained there was a need to infill a local pedestrian subway underpass using foam concrete, and option not previously u