Road Structures

Japanese financing will help pay for new bridges in Nicaragua. The funding package is worth nearly US$43 million and is being provided by the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA). The four bridge will be constructed on the road that connects Rio Blanco and Siuna in Nicaragua’s North Caribbean Coast Autonomous Region (RACCN). The agreement has been settled between JICA and the Nicaraguan Government. The new bridges will help improve connections between the Pacific Coast Coast and the Caribbean Coast

A new bridge in Kenya’s premier port of Mombasa is being planned. This will be the second Nyali Bridge and it is being built in a bid to cut congestion as the existing structure is unable to cope with the current traffic volumes. The new bridge will be 600m long and the project will also include building 400m of connecting roads to link the structure to the existing network. The Kenya Urban Roads Authority (KURA) is due to open the tender process shortly. The winner of the tender will have the job of design

Construction work on a new highway connection from the Serbian border to the Kosovan capital of Pristina will commence in 2018. The highway will run from Nis on the border to Pristina and is expected to cost around €200 million to construct. Funding for the project has yet to be finalised though the European Investment Bank (EIB) may well play a role in providing financing.

Construction has commenced on a contract to build a new 27km road link in South Korea. The road will connect the northern and southern regions of South Korea’s Saemanguem area. The work is costing US$813 million and is being carried out in two stages. The first stage of the project should be complete by 2022.

Work is progressing on the major Temburong Bridge project in Brunei. This bridge will measure nearly 12km in length, with the work being handled by a series of contractors. Both the Chinese contractor China State Construction Engineering Corporation Limited (CSCEC) and the South Korean firm Daelim Industrial are involved in the project. Work being carried out also includes the construction of two viaducts measuring 13.4km. The link is expected to open to traffic in 2019.

The Italian contractor CMC Di Ravenna (CMC) will handle a series of road upgrades in Zambia. In all the Italian company will repair, improve and upgraded 292km of roads. Asphalt surfacing will be laid on the Kabwe to Piccadilly Circus and Mpula to Mansansa roads in Central Province. The project includes upgrades to 20km of urban roads in Mkushi and Kabwe. The Zambian Government of Zambia awarded the contract to CMC through the country’s Road Development Authority (RDA).

On Aug 1st 2017, it was 10 years since the I-35W Bridge in Minneapolis collapsed. The bridge had been classified as structurally deficient and was undergoing repair at the time. However the repairs focussed on the decking rather than the structure, with the additional weight of the extra asphalt layers and the construction machinery parked adding to the total load and contributing to the collapse.

Major road and highway development will be seen in India as the country boosts its network. Meanwhile plans are also moving ahead for a major new bridge project in India. The highways development programme will see 15,000km of National Highways being built across India in the 2017/2018 period. This is a key increase from previous years. So far, 2,269km of the National Highways road construction links targeted for the 2017-2018 period have been built. During the 2016-2017 period, 8,231km of National Highways