News

The structural condition of bridges in South Australia is now being analysed following concerns over their integrity. The authorities in South Australia have hired the consulting company Aurecon to conduct a comprehensive study of 1,500 bridges located across the state. This follows after a 1.6km section of road in Adelaide had to be partly closed to traffic due to potential defects being detected in a bridge carrying trams over the road stretch. The five day closure of the road section caused major traffic

Somerford Equipment, a UK manufacturer of road marking and road surfacing vehicles and equipment, has supplied Iraq with two road marking vehicles.

Russia is setting out its plans for 14 major highway projects. A budget of US$1 billion has been set by the Federal Road Agency, Rosavtodor, for the work, which will involve building some 220km of highways in total. Key projects being discussed include upgrading the existing A-181 Scandinavia route that runs between the Finnish border and St Petersburg and building the M-56 Lena route in the Amur Region, which shares a border with China’s Heilongjiang Province. The M-56 is an important route for Russia’s ea

A US contractor has employed equipment from Guntert & Zimmerman to help carry out a runway rebuild at Detroit Metro Airport The busy airport handles around 30 million passengers/year and the project had to be carried out in a tight timeframe as a result, with the paving crew working 16 hours/day to meet the schedule. Ajax Construction has been using its G&Z S850 paver for the work, which was needed as the existing concrete surface on runway 4L/22R had suffered from an alkali silica reaction (ASR). The

The Finnish government has axed controversial plans to privatise the operation of a large number of major roads and turn them into user-pay infrastructure. But transport Minister Anne Berner also announced that the government would now keep a tax on new car sales. The tax was going to be scrapped as part of the move to make road users pay tolls. Berner had recently announced that the government would put the operation of major highways under a new stand-alone agency that would engage the private secto

Poland plans to issue a number of major highway construction tenders early this year as part of plan to boost the number of high-speed road projects started in 2017. Around €4.84 billion be spent this year on road construction and maintenance. Expected to be on offer is the missing A1 section between Tuszyn and Czestochowa as well as construction of an S61 dual carriageway from Ostrowia Mazowiecka to Szczuczyn. Polish media reported that around 124km of dual carriageways and motorways were built last

Chile’s busy Route 68 between capital Santiago and the country’s main port of Valparaiso faces an uncertain future. The 110km highway carries heavy traffic volumes and is close to its capacity of 4,500 vehicles/hour at peak periods, with extensive works required to improve the route. The work to upgrade Route 68 is expected to cost up to US$170 million, with eight sections of the highway in particular need of attention. The tender process for the upgrade work will open shortly. The Chilean Government opt

Moscow is pushing ahead with its programme of road repairs in the city and surrounding area. During 2016 some 2,100km of roads benefited from necessary repair and maintenance work. This work cost over US$162 million, with funding coming from the Moscow Regional Budget. The city’s chronic traffic congestion is made worse by the poor state of the road network in many areas of Moscow and plans are in hand to carry out repairs to address the issue. With high traffic volumes and a tough climate to contend with,

The Bechtel Enka joint venture partnership has completed the first 20km section of the Kosovo Route 6 highway which links Pristina with Macedonia. This is the first third of the 60km highway that will connect Kosovo’s capital, Pristina with neighbouring Macedonia. The new section was opened recetnly at a ceremony attended by Kosovo President Hashin Thaci and other government officials including the Kosovo Prime Minister Isa Mustafa, Head of Parliament Kadri Veseli, and Minister of Transport Lutfi Zharku

India’s Madhya Pradesh State is developing plans to upgrade existing roads to highway status. The programme will see up to 2,000km of roads being widened with extra lanes being added as well as new safety measures being installed. The aim of this programme is to boost connectivity in the state, with the plans have been developed by the State Government and now being submitted to India’s Central Government for approval. Funding for the widening and upgrade programme has yet to be announced however. Two of th

The first stages of the construction work for the expressway connecting the Jelapang with Batu Kawan in Malaysia are now underway. The 116km Jelapang-Selama-Batu Kawan Expressway (Jelas) is expected to take 36 months to be built and the project is worth some US$1.12 billion. The project forms part of the development plans for Malaysia’s Northern Corridor and will help boost economic activity in Ipoh and Penang.