Road Structures

The World Bank looks likely to supply funding that will help pay for a major road improvement project in Nicaragua. The US$75 million loan should be agreed by November 2016, if all goes to plan. The funding will pay for major improvement works for the road connecting Nicaragua’s capital Managua with the country’s second city, Leon. At present the route suffers heavily from congestion at peak periods and is unsuited to the traffic volumes it has to cope with. The construction work is expected to commence in

Plans are being set out for an important new highway link in the CIS. This new link will connect the M-5 and M-7 highways, close to the city of Ufa and the project is expected to cost US$1.12 billion to carry out. The work will require the construction of a tunnel stretch carrying four traffic lanes, as well as two highway sections and an overpass in the city itself. Ufa is the capital of the Republic of Bashkortostan, which is part of the CIS. The city is linked to Russia’s capital Moscow by the M-7 highwa

The Czech Republic is planning a major programme of road upgrades. This will target secondary roads in the country, improving road surfaces as well as safety features. Some €155.45 million is being provided by the Czech Ministry for Local Development for the work. Much of the funding is being sourced from EU financing, with the programme of road repair and upgrade works scheduled to take place from August 2016 until October 2022.

Delays are afflicting the official opening of a stretch of the East-West highway in Algeria. This 84km section of the highway connects Dréan in the east of Algerian to the border with neighbouring Tunisia. A Japanese contractor was in charge of the project to construct the 400km eastern stretch of the East-West highway. However financial problems surrounding the need for additional work led to construction of the final stretch being curtailed. There is concern that should the work be left unfinished any lon

The Swiss Federal Roads Office (FEDRO) has awarded Poyry detailed engineering planning work for the upgrading of operational and safety equipment in two major tunnels on the A2 motorway. The A2 forms the main north-south motorway in Switzerland, connecting Basel with Chiasso. The Schänzli and Hagnau tunnels have been in operation for four decades and are being completely refurbished. Pöyry has already been handling the structural measures and ventilation systems in the tunnels, said Marcel Winter,

Congestion is a major problem in certain areas of US state Florida. Large number of commuters and tourists means that central Florida’s Interstate 4 (I-4) highway suffers particularly from congestion. Its proximity to Disneyland means that the traffic often comes to a complete standstill. A 2012 report from the Texas Transportation Institute ranked Orlando 13th in the US for traffic congestion, with more than 1.5 million daily trips on I-4. The report estimates that each frustrated commuter wastes about 45

The tender process for Chile’s Cau Cau Bridge rebuilding project is due to be opened in August 2016.

Plans are in hand for a new bridge between Cameroon and Chad. The new bridge will be built to improve the road connection between Yagoua in northern Cameroon and Bongor in Chad. It will cross the Logone River, which forms a stretch of the border between the two countries from Lake Chad and running to the south of Bongor. The work is expected to cost around US$127 million. The authorities in both countries are involved with the planning for the new bridge as there is a recognition in both nations that improv