Road Structures

The Bahrain government is to purchase around 200 plots of private seafront land in order to build a new US$265.21 million (BHD 100 million) coastal highway. The highway will connect the Seef District and the new Northern Town, a town being built off the coast of Duraz. The town will feature a government housing development of 1,618 low-cost housing units and 367 mid-range units. The highway project will not affect the World Heritage Site status of Bahrain Fort. Work on the new coastal route will start by th

In Slovakia plans are being made for a new project that will become the country’s longest tunnel when it is complete. Salini Impregilo is the contractor heading the project. The work looks set to cost in the order of €410 million and the project is due for completion in late 2019 or early 2020. Although there was a lower priced bid for the project, this was excluded due to technical problems relating to the proposed tunnel exits. The Visnove Tunnel will measure some 7.7km long and will be constructed in the

The final funding has been found for a new dual carriageway connection linking the city of Mombasa to its airport. The Transport Ministry has revealed that US$15 million is being provided for the work by Trademark East Africa, on top of the $24 million being provided by the Kenyan Government. The tender process for the project is now commencing and the size of the deal involved is being revealed shortly. The upgraded road will link Moi International Airport with Changamwe, which lies on the western outskirt

Kevin Vine reports on the use of non-destructive testing for structural analysis of bridges Seven years ago, the overpass collapse in Laval, Québec that led to the death of five people brought to light severe issues with the state of the country’s bridges and transportation infrastructure. More recently, a crack in the Champlain Bridge to Montreal that forced over 160,000 commuters to find alternate routes to work reaffirmed a need for greater emphasis on early detection before a crisis occurs.

The Indian state of Odisha is to see a total of 2,370km of its national highways (NH) upgraded to four and six-lanes under Phases I to V of the National Highway Development Project. Phase-I of the project has already been completed, involving the four-laning of 520km of NH. Around 490km (Phase II) are still under construction for US$ 770.77 million (INR 45.7 billion), and are expected to be completed by March 2015. These include the four-lane Bhubaneswar-Puri, four-lane Sambalapur-Bargarh, four-lane Panikoi

Mexico's Secretarat of Communications of Transport (SCT) has awarded the contract to build the Cardel-Poza Rica motorway to Portuguese company Mota-Engil. The proposal made by the company, together with PRODI, of US$266.48 million (MXN 3.47 billion), was deemed the most feasible technically and financially. The offer was below the $307.53 million (MXN 4 billion) estimated for the project in the National Infrastructure Plan (PNI). The road will be located in Veracruz, spanning 129km between Laguna Verde and

A Chinese demolition contractor carried out an effective and efficient demolition job. The firm brought both a defunct bridge and the tower block next to it down simultaneously using explosives. Residents living nearby were evacuated from their properties for safety but the explosive demolition went according to plan and both the bridge and tower block were brought crashing to the ground in the planned zones but without any injuries.