News

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

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.

The Transport Department of the State of Virginia in the US plans to cancel a contract worth an estimated US$1.12 billion for road construction awarded to Spanish firm Ferrovial. The deal ends 15 June and the two parties are negotiating compensation terms for Ferrovial which won the contract in October 2012 for US-460. . Work was to begin in 2014 and finish in 2018 but no construction has taken place. The road, awarded in consortium with American Infrastructure, was to be 88.5km and run between the c

The concession package for Colombia’s Toyo Tunnel project will be awarded in the third quarter of 2015. This has been announced by the authorities in Antioquia. The date has been set for September 28th for the concession to be awarded. The project will cost US$530.2 million, with the costs being split between the Medellin Council and the regional government. The 9.8km tunnel will help boost transport and trade between Medellin and Uraba. The regional government has launched a dedicated website with details

Strong interest in investment in Indonesian infrastructure is being reported. Work is starting on a series of major infrastructure projects. The groundbreaking for the trans-Sumatra toll road has been carried out. The toll road will link Aceh to Lampung and is one of a series of major projects commencing in the country. The Indonesian Government has increased its allocation for capital expenditure from US$12.03 billion to $22.36 billion for 2015. Infrastructure development in 2015 is expected to fuel the co

Plans are well in hand in El Salvador for a key bypass project. Approval has been given for a US$122 million loan for the San Miguel bypass. The loan will help finance the San Miguel road bypass, with the El Salvador Government contributing an additional $30 million towards the project. The construction work is expected to last around four years. In addition, official approval has also been given for talks with the Inter-American Development Bank (IADB) over a loan worth $115 million to finance the Pacific-