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In the US, the Ohio River Bridges East End Crossing—now named Lewis and Clark Bridge—opened to traffic in mid-December.

A joint venture comprising Cambridge Systematics and WSP | Parsons Brinckerhoff will carry out a major Interstate study for the US. The joint venture partners were selected by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (National Academies). The future interstate study is mandated in Fixing America's Surface Transportation Act of 2015 (FAST Act). The FAST Act calls for the National Academies’ Transportation Research Board (TRB) to conduct “... a study on the actions needed to upgrade a

A series of major road and bridge projects is now underway in India. One of the most notable is the US$500 million project to build a new bridge spanning the River Ganges, which will be the longest in the country. Financing for the 9.8km bridge has been provided in the shape of a loan from the Asian Development Bank (ADB). The new link will be located close to Patna and is spanning both channels of the Ganges at this point and it features a cable-stayed design. The new bridge is required as the original str

Highways in the US state of Illinois will be upgraded during 2017, improving connections to and from Chicago. The budget for the work has been set at US$1.7 billion. Works planned include the north-south I-490 Tollway and building the Illinois Route 390 Tollway. The I-490 route will improve access to O'Hare International Airport, part of a $3.4 billion programme of works upgrading Chicago’s busy airport facility. Another plan in hand in Illinois is for a new HOT lane on the currently congested Eisenhowe

Istanbul’s new Eurasia Tunnel has been opened for traffic, connecting the Asian and European side of the Bosporus strait. The new link will help reduce congestion in Istanbul and should cut travel times to just 15 minutes for drivers using the link. The tunnel runs from Kazlıçeşme on the European side to Göztepe on the Asian side of the Bosporus strait. The new route is 14.5km long, with a 5.4km tunnel stretch lying up to 106m below the Bosporus Strait and features two decks for vehicles and it is expect

Having trouble getting into that Christmas feeling? Too much taking and not enough giving in the world? Well, one extremely skilled excavator operator in the US did hit bit to change all that. He extended a helping hand – in reality a bucket - to a baby deer trapped head-deep in mud on an extremely wet construction site. The operator used his skills to gingerly lift the stricken animal to safety. That wasn’t the end of it. There were, in fact, two deer, and the excavator operator rescued the second

New Zealand has plans to rebuild transport infrastructure damaged by the recent earthquake. Road as well as rail links were damaged by the earthquake in Kaikoura and the rebuilding will include measures to provide protection against future such problems, as well as improving safety. The work will cost an estimated US$1.03 billion (NZ$1.4 billion). Another project being planned is the rebuilding of Kaikoura Harbour, which was also damaged by the earthquake.

Malaysia is pushing ahead with a series of construction projects that will form sections of the Pan Borneo Highway in Sarawak. Work will go ahead on eight sections of this important route and this will form phase one of the project, with the cost anticipated as some US$3.05 billion. The eight packages consist of the 95km stretch from Sematan to Sungai Moyan Bridge, an 89km stretch connecting Pantu Interchange with Batang Skrang and the 80km section from Sungai Tangap Interchange to the Pujut Link Road. They

Expropriation costs are rising for two major Thailand motorway projects, according to the Department of Highways director-general Thanin Somboon. Around US$165 million were estimated to be needed about eight years ago for the 96km Bang Yai-Kanchanaburi motorway project. However, the latest estimate is about $610 million, said highways director-general Thanin Somboon. This is on top of the estimated construction cost of around $1.2 billion, he said. For the 109km Nakhon Pathom-Cha-Am motorway projec

Germany has boosted its transportation infrastructure spending for 2017. The biggest slice of the budget - 42% - goes to the labour and social welfare ministry, followed by the military which gets just over 11% of the money, €36 billion, up €2.7 billion. The total budget of the German Ministry of Transport and Digital Infrastructure amounts to €26.8 billion, up 9.2% or €2.2billion from this year. Of this €26.8 billion, €13.7 billion will be invested in infrastructure. This will grow in 2018 to €14.4 b