Road Structures

In Russia the new Severny tunnel is planned for Rostov-on-Don. This four-lane tunnel will be 3.5 km long, and will be designed to carry up to 60,000 vehicles/day. The project is expected to cost in the region of US$188.43-226.12 million to construct. Design work will take two years, with the project due for completion in four years. The tunnel's service life is expected to total 24 years.

In Brazil financing issues have hit a number of transport projects in Minas Gerais state. The Banco do Brasil is holding back funds for planned work. As a result the state government of Minas Gerais has halted work on 32 construction projects. The Banco do Brasil has not provided the expected US$345.86 million for the work to be carried out. The finances were arranged by the central government through its funding programmes. The projects include a section of the MG-437 road between Sabara and Nova Lima. The

The Inter-American Development Bank (IADB) is approving a loan worth US$105 million for Paraguay. The loan will cover work along San Juan Nepomuceno -route 6- road. The bank recently approved USD 150mn for Paraguay's national development agency AFD, as well as other loans to support small and medium size companies and improve roads across the country.

In Serbia construction work is on track for the Zemun-Borca road project. The new road link should be open to traffic by the end of 2014. The cost of the project has not been revealed however. Some stretches of the new link are already being used unofficially, by pedestrians.

Serbia is on schedule with its construction programme for highways and roads. The country looks set to have completed 64km of highways and 15km of parallel or link roads during 2014. This figure compares favourably with the average 50km/year construction rate across most European countries currently building highways. Meanwhile Serbian road company Koridori Srbije looks set to merge with the road company Putevi Srbije. Koridori Srbije has already built 51km of highways during 2014. The remainder should be c

In Israel a specialist contractor is using a new Hitachi excavator for major earthmoving work on the Road 65 construction project in the north of the country. Hilkiyahu’s ZX670LCH-5 has already clocked over 1,100 working hours, excavating and loading 1.5million m³ of materials on the upgraded route.

The Polish town of Marki is to benefit from a new 15km ring road, which will be constructed by a consortium comprising the contractors Astaldi and Salini. The project has a total value of some €167.4 million. The first section will measure 8.1km and run from Kobylka and Marki junctions. Salini plans to complete this stretch in 32 months. Meanwhile, the second section will run between Radzymin Pld and Kobylka junctions and will be completed in 36 months. Meanwhile work on the final section of the S8 road has