News

Ferrovial has lost control of the 407 International highway in Canada, one of the Spanish group's star assets. The Supreme Court in the province of Ontario has ruled in favour of co-shareholder pension fund Canada Pension Plan Investment Board to buy another stake - 10.01% - in the highway. The shares are up for sale by another shareholder, Montreal-based global infrastructure engineering firm SNC-Lavalin. The court denied Ferrovial, which already has the largest shareholding at 43% in the highway, th

Tests by the Transport Research Laboratory (TRL) in the UK show that the use of rumble strips could significantly reduce crashes.

A legal battle is facing the UK’s Silvertown Tunnel project. A consortium called STC and comprising Dragados and Hochtief is presenting a legal case over the project. According to STC, there are issues over the way in which the preferred bidder for the work has been selected. The work is for a new tunnel under the River Thames in the east of London. The project is expected to cost £1 billion. The Riverlinx consortium is currently the preferred bidder. Building the tunnel will help reduce congestion. The

Gabon is planning a major road project linking capital Libreville with Haut-Ogooue Province.

New state-owned roads are opening in Russia for 2019. The state-owned road firm Avtodor is to see its network grow by 202km by the end of 2019. The key link opening for traffic will be the new M11 highway connecting capital Moscow with St Petersburg. The final stretches of the M11 are now being finished. Of the 202km to be finished by the end of 2019, around 56km have been built already and 103km will be completed shortly. In all Avtodor has built 1,053km of highways in the last 10 years while the plans cal

A loan from the World Bank worth US212 million to the Kenyan Government for road works has been cancelled. The loan was to have been used to build new road connections in capital Nairobi, including a link with Jomo Kenyatta International Airport. Another road to have been funded by the finance package from the World Bank was the A104, connecting James Gichuru with Rironi, located the north west of the Kenyan capital. However, the upgrade work for this 16km stretch of dual carriageway has become shrouded i

Tanzania’s Dodoma City Outer Ring Roads project is to benefit from a loan provided by the African Development Bank (AfDB). The US$180 million loan from the AfDB will be used alongside the $36 million being provided by the Tanzanian Government for the work. In all the project will see 110km of road being constructed, including the ring road itself plus access roads and interchanges.

Indonesia is planning an impressive investment in infrastructure development. The five year plan calls for US$27.7 billion of works. Transport infrastructure is one of the key priorities with spending on roads and bridges as well as airports and rail.

Russia’s state-owned road company Avtodor is planning work for the Far-Western Bypass project for Krasnodar. The project is expected to cost US$585.5 million. A number of Russia’s leading construction firms are showing interest in the project. The work will be offered under the PPP model. Avtodor will likely sell a substantial portion of its share of the project to the winning firm.

A new road tunnel connection has been proposed by Georgia. The tunnel would be from Kobi to Gudauri on the highway connecting Mtskheta with Stepantsminda and Lars. This E117 route passes through an area of difficult terrain between Kobi and Gudauri. The tunnel would avoid some of the most challenging, mountainous sections of the present E117 alignment. The E117 is known for having some of the most challenging highway stretches in Europe, with a series of switchbacks close to Ganisi (to the south of the plan

Major new Chinese highway projects are being planned.

Bolivia is introducing a series of measures in a bid to improve the country’s poor road safety levels.

Slovakia’s national motorway company NDS has confirmed the D1 motorway between Hubova and Ivachnova is on schedule to be completed by mid-2022. Work on the 15km stretch of road – effectively a bypass for the town of Ruzomberok –was started in 2013. But a major landslide in 2015 halted work, pushing back completion from 2017 to 2022 at the latest estimate. Montenegrin media report that the cost of the project has grown from €227 million in 2013 to nearly €289 million. Construction is being carried out