Road Structures

Guatemala is opening the tender process to improve and widen the CA-2 Occidente highway connection between Cocales and Tecun Uman. The Ministry of Communications, Infrastructure and Housing (CIV) is handling the tender for the project. Cocales is located in Guatemala’s Suchitepequez region, while Tecun Uman is in San Marcos. The highway capacity upgrade has an estimated cost of US$397.2 million to carry out. However, the project has been the subject of some controversy as the Brazilian contractor Odebrec

Construction work to widen the Autopista Norte highway in Colombia is being handled by the Accenorte consortium. The work involves widening a 4.2km stretch of the highway, which lies to the north of Colombia’s capital Bogota. The project is worth close to US$157 million, with the majority of the funding being delivered by the consortium partners and the remainder from a Colombian Bank. The consortium is led by Mincivil with a 57.43% stake. It also includes Universal with a 16.7% share, Castro Tcherassi with

Plans are being developed in Australia for a major highway connection in Melbourne. Some US$7.45 billion (A$10 billion) is being planned by the Victoria State Government to fund the construction, with this being delivered through state rather than federal sources. However a final decision will not be made on the project until 2018, after the next local elections. If the project does get the final go ahead it will connect the Metropolitan Ring Road and the Eastern Freeway.

A feasibility study is planned to evaluate a project to construct a new causeway connecting Saudi Arabia with Bahrain.

Work is pushing ahead with the construction of the Corridor 10 and Corridor 11 highway projects in Serbia. Sections of the highway projects will be opened to traffic in 2017. All of Corridor 10 will be ready for use while the Obrenovac to Preljina stretch of Corridor 11 will open. Other road projects will commence including links running through Moravski and Fruskogorski. The Serbian Government doubled its infrastructure spending to €608.14 million for 2016, with a substantial portion being provided through

Colombia’s capital Bogota looks set to gain from key road projects, with te country’s National Infrastructure Agency (ANI) unveiling detailed plans for upcoming works. Plans are being worked on for the widening of the 53km road linking Los Andes and Cajica with the construction of an extra lane. This is a US$$156.56 million project and will be funded by private sources. The pre-feasibility study for the Autopista Norte road extension has already passed the approval stage and this project will also be funded

Further progress is being made with the Agua Negra Tunnel project, which will connect Chile with Argentina. A loan worth US$40 million is being provided by the Inter-American Development Bank (IADB). This loan will help deliver the bidding process for the project. Several bidders are being pre-qualified for the tender process. Construction of the tunnel itself is expected to take eight ant a half years with the work estimated to cost $1.6 billion. The tunnel will provide a safer and more reliable route than

Construction work is underway on India’s Bogibeel Bridge, which will span the Brahmaputra River. When complete the bridge is expected to come with a price tag of US$746.8 million. The new bridge will provide both road and rail links over the Brahmaputra River and is expected to open to traffic in March 2018. The novel design features an upper deck with three traffic lanes for road vehicles as well as a lower deck carrying twin rail lines. Measuring 4.9km long, the bridge will be the longest in India carryin

Tunnelling innovation is creating mountains of data for contractors and designers, delegates to a recent British Tunnelling Society (BTS) conference heard Successful innovation in tunnelling techniques and technologies is creating more and more data, thanks to digitalisation.