News

The Ministry of Public Works of Chile has opened the bids for the near US $ 227 million (CLP 109.39bn) Route D 43 road concession in Chile. Sacyr Concesiones are reported to have submitted the best offer. The road concession goes between La Serena and Ovalle.

A new 240tonne bridge has now been installed over the M54 as part of a major overnight engineering operation. The single-span bridge, which stretches 45m over the motorway, is part of wider plans to develop a site in South Staffordshire. To allow engineers to winch the giant structure in safely, both carriageways between junctions 2 and 3 were closed on Saturday, November 3rd. Bridge sections were delivered to a near compound early in the summer where it was pieced together. Just after 11.30pm on Saturday,

In the UK town of Luton, a contractor has been hard at work demolishing a car park. Situated in the centre of this large town, the car park had to be removed as it had reached the end of its working life. But the tight space of the urban working environment meant that the contractor had to be extremely careful not to damage surrounding buildings or inconvenience business, traffic or commuters. Long reach excavators with demolition attachments were used by the firm.

UK Transport Secretary Patrick McLoughlin has approved a planning inspector's report for a new bridge across the Wear in Sunderland. Four firms, reported to be Balfour Beatty, Ferrovial, Graham Construction and Vinci, have been shortlisted for the US $ 200 million (£120mn) project. The tendering process is expected to take six months, suggesting construction could start in spring 2013. The bridge will take around three years to complete. The new crossing, from Castletown to Pallion, will be the tallest brid

Funds earmarked by the Brazilian Government to improve roads, railways and hydro channels for shipping cargo transport have not been fully spent, according to the Institute of economic research (Ipea). Federal road spending was estimated to be US $ 6.72 billion (BRL 13.62bn) in 2012, but Ipea says that so far only 48.3% $ 3.23 billion (BRL 6.58bn) of that amount has been used.

The British government’s decision to cut back hard on its highways maintenance spending plans will severely degrade the quality of local roads across the UK and risk driving up the long-term costs for the country’s hard-pressed local authorities, the National Audit Office has warned in a new report out this month entitled “Funding for local transport.” The NAO has also told the UK’s ministers that they must be much clearer about who they think should take forward the decision-making process once the devolut

The Spanish construction company Ferrovial has completed its US $ 1.40 billion (€1.08bn) works on the SH-130 motorway in Texas (US). The company is preparing a bid for further work in the US state by competing for the contract to build the IH-35 in Dallas while, at the same time, completing further works on two other key Texas road projects: the NTE (North Tarrant Express) Highway; and the Lyndon B. Johnson Freeway (Interstate 635).

IAM (Institute of Advanced Motorists) director Neil Greig said “much more” needed to be done to sustain an encouraging drop in the latest published quarterly road casualty statistics for the UK. The latest Department for Transport figures revealed 400 people were killed in road accidents in Britain between April-June 2012 – down 18% than the 487 killed over the same period of 2011. The total number of casualties was 47,880 between April-June 2012, a fall of 7% on the 51,580 in Q2 2011.

Concern has been expressed over recidivist motorists in Europe who continue to flout seatbelt laws, despite strong evidence that they risk serious injury or death. According to recent police safety data, results from a recent pan-European seatbelt control operation show that nearly 100,000 drivers and passengers were detected not wearing seatbelts. A total of 25 countries took part in the operation, which was co-ordinated by the European Traffic Police Network (TISPOL). Of the final total of 97,489 detectio

Bidding is strong for work on a key section of the Moscow to St Petersburg highway. Several offers have been made for the project, which will connect the Businovskaya and MKAD junction to Festivalnaya Street, and a junction of Festivalnaya Street and MKAD. Both Mostotrest and ARKS are tendering for the work. The tender results will be announced on 20th November 2012. The authorities have stated that the contract price should not exceed US$946 million.

The authorities in Russia’s Astrakhan Region intend to boost road investment in 2013. Over US$289 million is being budgeted for road repair and construction during 2013. This represents a three-fold increase over the sum spend on road repair and construction in the Astrakhan Region during 2012. The priority project is for construction of the new Astrakhan-Makhachkala road, which is financed by Russia’s Federal budget.

Preparation work is underway in Vietnamese city Da Nang for the planned Da Nang-Quang Ngai Expressway. The 140km road will link the provinces of Quang Ngai and Quang Nam and site clearance work worth around US$48 million in compensation is being carried out at present. Construction of the expressway itself will commence in mid-2013 and the new road will cut journey times from three hours along the existing route to just two hours.

Slovakia is benefiting from strong European investment in its transport infrastructure. For the 12 month period up until 30th September 2012, the country benefited from the use of EU funds worth €920.5 million. This amount was used for projects within the Operational Programme Transport (OPD) and came from the overall allocated sum of €3.12 billion. Co-financing from the state budget stood at €211.5 million and represented 33.75% of the overall sum of €626.6 million. The finances used from the EU Cohesion F