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A loan from the Asian Development Bank (ADB) worth US$800 million will help pay for a series of major road upgrades in Sri Lanka. The remaining $106 million required for the project will be provided by the Sri Lankan Government. The funding will pay for works to 2,200km of provincial and local roads as well as 400km of national roads. The work will help provide proper road connections to around 1,000 villages, with the loan being supplied in a series of payments. The first $100 million payment will be made

A new survey of car crashes cites inattention as the leading cause. The study was carried out by Allianz Global Assistance and the Allianz technical centre and focussed on driver behaviour. The report revealed that around one third of car accidents are due to inattention, with 60% of drivers admitting that using mobile phones while driving is the leading reason for inattention. Meanwhile a further 40% of drivers admitted they talk on the phone while behind the wheel. Even more worryingly, 30% of drivers adm

Equipment manufacturer Hyundai Heavy Industries has published optimistic results in the financial report for its construction equipment operations. The firm’s Annual Report 2013 said that the global construction market slowed in 2013 as economic uncertainty in the US and Europe continued and China maintained its tight credit policies to keep growth in check. In emerging markets such as the Middle East, Brazil, Russia, and Africa, falling international raw materials prices combined with a market slump in th

The Australian National Road and Motorists Association (NRMA) has published a report highlighting a widening gap in national funds available for road maintenance, a gap which the motoring group says has already reached Aus $3.78 billion. The association is calling on the Federal Government to allocate more fuel excise revenue to road projects, saying up to half of the current 38.1 cents per litre is required to fund the ‘black hole’.

A series of tenders for major highway, tunnel and road repair projects are being opened in Brazil. The country’s national transport infrastructure department, DNIT, has set out plans for a series of tenders, all of which form part of phase 2 of the country's growth acceleration plan, PAC. The first of the key projects opening for tender will be the new Morro dos Cavalos tunnel, which will be constructed in the southern state of Santa Catarina. This 1.36km tunnel will be built in the city of Palhoça and form

A loan worth US$500 million from the World Bank's International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD) will help improve road connections in India. The funding will be directed towards India's National Highways Inter-connectivity Improvement Project (NHIIP), a programme of works aimed at improving routes in some rural or remote areas of the country. The NHIIP plan involves upgrading around 1,120km of National Highways in some of the country’s the low-income states such as Bihar, Orissa and Rajasthan

Colombian contractor Mario Huertas Cotes and Costa Rican company MECO will carry out construction work on Costa Rica’s Cartagena to Barranquilla highway. The highway stretch measures some 146.7km long and the contract is worth US428.9 million. The two construction companies have come together to carry out the contract jointly and won the deal with a low priced bid.

Thailand’s Highways Department is asking the country’s interim military government to decide on a planned US$2.59 billion highway project. The four-lane highway runs along a 196km route, connecting Bang Pa-in in Ayutthaya to Nakhon Ratchasima via Saraburi. The Highways Department wants to include the project in the eight-year strategic infrastructure development plan put forward by the military government. The project could be partly funded from the 2015-2016 budget as well as through loans and a joint publ

Plans are in hand in Paraguay for the new Carmelo Peralta-Pozo Hondo highway stretch. This route lies in the country’s Chaco region and is expected to cost in the region of US$500 million to construct. Spanish contractor Ohl-Sato has shown strong interest in the work to build the new Carmelo Peralta-Pozo Hondo road. The firm does have experience of projects of this type. The route revamp is required to help regional connectivity.

In Hungary the national infrastructure development company, NIF, says that a new stretch of the M0 orbital between the number 1 road and the number 10 road will not to be constructed before 2020. An environmental permit for the project is expected to be granted in the second half of 2016. The new stretch will feature two lanes in both directions and will be 18km long. A budget for the project has yet to be announced.

The Indonesian Government is aiming to start work on 16 major infrastructure projects before October 2014. These include the development of Cilamaya Port and its access road at a cost of US$1.25 billion, the Kertajajati and Soekarno-Hatta airport projects and five toll road projects. The toll roads include the Balikpapan-Samarinda connection, the Palu-Parigi link, the Manado-Bitung Toll, the Cibitung-Cilincing road and the Trans Sumatra tolled highway. The Public Works Ministry is offering tenders valued at

Turkey has plans to construct 1,470 new bridges by 2023. This follows on from a previous bridge building programme that saw 1,635 bridges built between 2003 and 2013. The country also repaired and maintained 717 bridges in this time period, as well as renovating 124 historical bridges. At present Turkey has some 7,600 bridges measuring a total length of 428km in all. The 10 year bridge building programme between 2003 and 2013 saw a 37% increase in the total length of the country’s bridges to 311km in all. A