Road Structures

Construction work on Chile’s Americo Vespucio Oriente 1 (AVO 1) highway is starting somewhat later than was originally planned. Originally construction of the new highway was to have commenced in September 2016, but this was then held back first to July 2017 and finally to October 2017.

Construction work for an 82km stretch of road in Bolivia is proceeding within the planned schedule. Work on the new road should be complete in July-August 2018. The new road section will provide an improved connection from Riberalta to El Triangulo, located in Beni State in the north-east of Bolivia. Construction work is being carried out by a Chinese contractor and in all, the project is for a 508km stretch of road with the total project expected to cost US$608 million.

The cost of the Padma Bridge Project in Bangladesh could rise by around US$173 million, according to a report by the Financial Express newspaper. A Planning Commission official said the money would be needed for compulsory purchase of nearly 2,6700 more hectares. Work started in 2014 and the project is likely to finish by the end of 2018.

Croatia’s roads agency Hrvatske Ceste will soon start evaluating tenders for the controversial Peljeski Bridge project, according to national media. Bids for construction of the four-lane 2.4km long bridge have been submitted by the China Road and Bridge Corporation, Austria's Strabag as well as consortia headed by Italy’s Astaldi and the Turkish company Ictas. The bridge will connect Croatian territory by traversing the Adriatic Sea’s Mali Ston Bay.

Structural engineering company VSL International has installed all 28 cable stays of England’s New Wear Crossing and stressed them to 50% of their design load. The next stage of stressing the cables will happen next month and be to 100% of design load. This will allow the construction team to adjust and tension them just enough to lift the bridge deck off the blue steel temporary supports that were constructed in the river to take the weight of the structure.

The Elizabeth River Tunnels Project in Norfolk, Virginia is now complete. This follows the earlier completion of the Midtown Tunnel and the MLK Expressway extension. The entire project has been completed around 12 months earlier than had been originally planned, helping to drive down costs for the work. With the new tunnels and expressway extension open to traffic, peak time congestion will be vastly reduced in the area around Norfolk. The region also carries large volumes of holiday traffic at times, so th

An agreement has been signed to pay for the construction of a new 34km road link in Nigeria’s River State. The new link will connect Bonny Island with Bodo, improving transport for this key industrial area of Nigeria. The agreement was signed jointly between the Nigerian Government, Julius Berger Nigeria, and Nigeria LNG. The road project is expected to cost US$331.62 million, with around half of the financing being provided by Nigeria LNG.

Bids are now being received for an important tunnel project in northern Poland. The country’s General Directorate for National Roads and Motorways (GDDKiA) has had four offers worth between €194 million and €259 million for the construction of the tunnel. The new link is planned to be built in Swinoujscie and will run under the Swina River to Uznam Island with Wolin Island.

A series of key road projects in Venezuela have fallen victim to the country’s overall financial paralysis, a result of its plummeting economy and its disastrous political climate. Insufficient finances have seen work to construct the La Verota-Kempis, Circunvalacion Sur-Caracas and Caracas-La Guaira highways now being stalled for two years.