Road Structures

Demolition has started on downtown Seattle’s old Alaskan Way Viaduct as part of a major waterfront redevelopment project that included the State Route 99 tunnel. According to Seattle media, Washington state is aiming to collect US$200 million in tolls from the 3.2km tunnel – which is now open - as part of the $3.3 billion replacement of the Alaskan Way Viaduct. However, tolling on the double-deck tunnel which has two lanes in each direction, plus an eight-foot safety shoulder, will not start until this s

A new software called SmartWater offers predictive capabilities for gully management. It has been developed by software specialist InTouch with support from Lancaster University, Innovate UK and the Department of Transport. In a Smart City demonstration project in Bristol, it has achieved savings of 50% and reduced problem gullies from 25% to just 8%. The system uses a combination of IoT sensors and predictive software to boost efficiency over conventional methods of checking gullies by rota. Research fo

Work is underway in Sweden on a new tunnel, which will connect Hjulstra and Akalla. Demolition of existing structures is being carried to prepare for the tunnel, which is located in the north of capital Stockholm. The tunnel itself is expected to be complete during 2021.

Work is expected to start soon on Bosnia’s Hranjen Tunnel, part of the future Goražde-to-Sarajevo highway. Gorazde Emir Okovic, head of the Podrinje Canton, told Bosnian media despite recent poor weather construction of the road is proceeding. Cost of the six-kilometre double-tube tunnel will be around €92 million with phase one amounting to nearly €36 million. The tunnel will cut the journey between the two towns from 95km to 56km and the time from 90 minutes to 45 minutes.

Croatia is to pay €70 million as its share for a bridge across the River Sava near Gradiska, in Republika Srpska, part of Bosnia-Herzegovina. A year ago, the European Commission set aside a €6.8 million grant for construction of the bridge.

Slovakia is on track with its transport infrastructure development programme, following a substantial budget set during 2018. Contracts worth a total of €1.5 billion were drawn up in 2018 for an array of transport projects. These include building new highway sections and upgrading existing sections of road or new bridges, as well as developing the country’s rail network. However, some of the funding available remains unspent. EU subsidies had been set to help pay for Slovakia’s transport improvements but b

Work is on track for the building of a key toll road project in Indonesia’s East Kalimantan. The 99.35km toll road runs between Samarinda and Balikpapan and will cut the travel time between the two from three hours to just one hour. The project is costing US$653.2 million to carry out. Work is almost complete for the stretches from Muara Jawa to Palaran and from Samboja to Muara Jawa sections. The section from Balikpapan to Samboja should be ready by April 2019 and the stretch from Samarinda to Palaran shou

The Hisgaura Bridge in Colombia remains a source of concern over its structure. The 653m bridge forms part of the Málaga—Los Curos highway and features the longest central span, at 400m, of any cable-stayed bridge in South America. However, Colombia's National Road Institute (Invias) has expressed its doubts over the bridge. Instability and potential high maintenance costs have been cited by Invias as grounds for this concern. The deck of the central section of the bridge is not properly level. It is not c

A 15km stretch of Interstate 64 in the US state of Virginia will be upgraded, allowing it to handle more traffic.

Interest is strong in the contract to build a new stretch of expressway in the north of Poland. Nine bids have been made for the project to built a 17km stretch of the S16 expressway, which lies close to the Russian enclave of Kaliningrad. This section will connect Borki Wielke and Mragowo and the work also includes construction a bypass around the latter. The bids range in value from €164.4 million up to €234 million. Work is expected to commence in 2020 and take until 2023 to complete.