Road Structures

Work is now underway on Algeria’s new 62km highway in Batna. The project was opened officially by the Algerian president. The US$567 million project will connect with Algeria’s key East-West highway and forms part of the president's 2005-2025 programme of works. The first section of the new highway will be split into two lots, linking the provinces of Batna, Khenchela and Oum El Bouaghi.

A loan from the Asian Development Bank (ADB) worth US$800 million will help pay for a series of major road upgrades in Sri Lanka. The remaining $106 million required for the project will be provided by the Sri Lankan Government. The funding will pay for works to 2,200km of provincial and local roads as well as 400km of national roads. The work will help provide proper road connections to around 1,000 villages, with the loan being supplied in a series of payments. The first $100 million payment will be made

The Australian National Road and Motorists Association (NRMA) has published a report highlighting a widening gap in national funds available for road maintenance, a gap which the motoring group says has already reached Aus $3.78 billion. The association is calling on the Federal Government to allocate more fuel excise revenue to road projects, saying up to half of the current 38.1 cents per litre is required to fund the ‘black hole’.

A loan worth US$500 million from the World Bank's International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD) will help improve road connections in India. The funding will be directed towards India's National Highways Inter-connectivity Improvement Project (NHIIP), a programme of works aimed at improving routes in some rural or remote areas of the country. The NHIIP plan involves upgrading around 1,120km of National Highways in some of the country’s the low-income states such as Bihar, Orissa and Rajasthan

Colombian contractor Mario Huertas Cotes and Costa Rican company MECO will carry out construction work on Costa Rica’s Cartagena to Barranquilla highway. The highway stretch measures some 146.7km long and the contract is worth US428.9 million. The two construction companies have come together to carry out the contract jointly and won the deal with a low priced bid.

Plans are in hand in Paraguay for the new Carmelo Peralta-Pozo Hondo highway stretch. This route lies in the country’s Chaco region and is expected to cost in the region of US$500 million to construct. Spanish contractor Ohl-Sato has shown strong interest in the work to build the new Carmelo Peralta-Pozo Hondo road. The firm does have experience of projects of this type. The route revamp is required to help regional connectivity.

In Hungary the national infrastructure development company, NIF, says that a new stretch of the M0 orbital between the number 1 road and the number 10 road will not to be constructed before 2020. An environmental permit for the project is expected to be granted in the second half of 2016. The new stretch will feature two lanes in both directions and will be 18km long. A budget for the project has yet to be announced.