Road Structures

A new stretch of highway is now opening to traffic in India. The 80km stretch of highway runs between Kundli and through Manesar to Palwal. Called the KMP Expressway, the route has had something of a checkered history and has been completed somewhat later than originally intended. The concession was originally awarded in 2006 and the road should have been completed in 2009, according to the planned timeline.

Construction work on Chile’s Chacao Bridge project is now underway. The 2.75km suspension bridge will connect the Chilean mainland with Chiloe Island. The bridge structure has been designed to flex so that It can cope with severe earthquakes, which present a risk in the area. The project is costing US$700 million to carry out with South Korean company Hyundai heading the construction. Building the link should take around five years with its completion set for 2023, although the work could be finished earlie

The Czech government’s road and motorway directorate RSD has reported that thousands of bridges in the country are in a critical state. Nearly 10% or the 5,000 motorway or first-class road bridges are in bad, very bad or emergency condition. The same applies to almost 3,000 bridges on second- and third-class roads. RSD has allocated around €69 million for repairs of bridges at main roads and motorways this year

The replacement Champlain Bridge in Montreal will open on schedule at the end of the year, according to the SNC-Lavalin-led consortium heading the project. Cost of the entire corridor project is set at US$3.3 billion of which around $1.8 billion is for construction of the bridge, approach roads and highway adjustments. Failure to open the bridge to vehicular traffic on time means the consortium faces stiff fines, according to media reports: around $77,500 a day for the first seven days followed by $31

South African city Johannesburg has a desperate need for road repairs and upgrades. Around US$1.1 billion of road repairs such as pothole filling or resurfacing work is required to bring the network back up to scratch.