Road Structures

Although India’s highway development programme has been seen as a high priority for the country’s economic development, rural roads have been so far regarded as less important. However a new programme of rural road development is being set up in a bid to redress the balanace.

A new road and interchange upgrade project is planned for the US state of Massachusetts. The deal is worth US$1.2 billion and involves upgrades to the Massachusetts Turnpike in Allston. An existing raised section of the route will be replaced with a former rail marshalling yard being used for the new roadway. Construction is expected to commence in 2020 and will take until 2025 to be completed.

Contractor Sibmost is to handle construction work for the Khabarovsk Bypass project. The new road will provide a link between the A-370 Ussuri, R-297 Amur and A-375 Vostok highways. With the construction of the Amur River bridge crossing also in hand, the new link will help provide improved transport between Russia and China. Discussions over the Amur River crossing between Russia and China first commenced in the 1980s and the project has finally come to fruition. The new tolled highway stretch being built

Consulting engineer Cowi has been appointed adviser on bridge and tunnel work for the Smokovac-Uvac-Matesevo section of the 170km Bar-Boljare highway in Montenegro. The Smokovac-Uvac-Matesevo section is a priority project for the Bar-Boljare highway project that will eventually run north to south from Montenegro's main sea port of Bar to the Serbian border. Cowi was awarded the work from main project contractor China Road and Bridge Corporation.

Vietnam’s North-South Expressway project will boost transport for both goods and passengers. This is the finding of a report from Vietnam's Transport Ministry. According to the report, demand to move goods along the route will climb to 62.3 million tonnes/year by 2020. Meanwhile the report says that the route will handle up to 45.4 million passengers/year by 2020. Because of its importance to the Vietnamese economy, the Ministry of Transport is highlighting that the country cannot allow the project to suff

The project to build the Chacao Bridge in Chile will now be managed fully by South Korean Contractor Hyundai. The firm formed a consortium, Consorcio Puente Chacao, with Brazilian contractor OAS to build the bridge. However OAS later hit financial issues, so Hyundai has now assumed full control of the project. The new bridge will connect the mainland with Chiloe Island and will be designed to cope with potentially extreme conditions. The area has suffered some of the most powerful earthquakes ever recorded

A major highway project is now underway in China. Construction work has commenced for the 169km Huzhou stretch of the Hangzhou City Highway. This section of the new route will feature 19 interchanges as well as four service area. In all the work is expected to cost US$6.55 billion to construct.

Construction work is commencing shortly for Moscow’s Central Ring Road (CRR) project. The new route should be ready for traffic in 2019-2020. The contract for the stretch of the route lying between the M4 Don and the M7 Volga highway is being awarded. In all the CRR will measure 530km long and is expected to cost US$5.43 billion to construct.

Iceland has opened its longest tunnel, a 7.9km structure between Neskaupstaður and Eskifjörður, to replace a mountain road often closed during winter storms. Construction of the Norðfjarðargöng tunnel on Route 92 in eastern Iceland started in 2013 and has cost just over €118 million. Tunneling, done using the traditional Nordic drill and blast method, was finished in 2015. The the two-lane Norðfjarðargöng tunnel replaces a smaller tunnel, the 640m Oddsskarðsgöng tunnel, a single-lane structure where cars