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Funding has been secured from Japan to help pay for construction of the Thanlyin Bridge No 3 project in Myanmar. A loan worth US$282.5 million is being provided by the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA). Construction is due to start in March 2019 and should take until 2023 to complete. The new bridge will form part of Asia’s new East-West Economic Corridor.

Mexico is setting a budget for road development works during the coming year. A budget of US$4.14 billion has been set for rebuilding existing roads and building new links during 2019. This budget has been set by the Mexican Secretariat of Communications and Transport (SCT). Projects being prioritised include the completion of Oaxaca-Puerto Escondido and Oaxaca-Mitla-Tehuantepec Isthmus roads. Maintenance work, link roads from highways to towns and upgrades to 5,500km of roads across the country will also b

The Czech Republic has seen an increase in the road casualty rate during 2018. In all 571 people were killed on the country’s roads in 2018, an increase of 69 from 2017. This was the highest level of road fatalities in the countries for the last three years. August and September had the highest level of fatal road crashes. Of note too is that the Czech Republic has a particularly poor record for motorcycle crashes, with the highest percentage/head of population of any EU nation.

A number of major road and bridge projects are now commencing in China. In Sichuan Province an environmental impact assessment report is being carried out for the Jigzhi-Barkam highway project. Work is starting shortly on the highway, which will stretch 224km and is expected to cost US$4.3 billion to construct. The report is being carried out by the province’s Ecology and Environment Agency. This new highway will provide many challenges to construction due to the topography of the route and will feature 190

LafargeHolcim has been awarded infrastructure contracts worth more than US$73.5 million as part of a major Highway 1 improvement project in Vancouver, Canada. Highway 1 – also called the TransCanada Highway – is a vital economic link for many local, regional and provincial towns and cities across the country, from the Atlantic to Pacific coasts. For the work in the Vancouver area, LafargeHolcim will be the prime contractor as awarded by the Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure for the provinc

A new highway connection between Serbia and Bosnia has been awarded to a Turkish contractor. The €250 million project will be carried out by the Turkish firm, Tasyapi. The project will see a new highway connecting Belgrade with Sarajevo in Bosnia. Building the new highway will improve transport connections between the two cities, reducing journey time and boosting both capacity and safety.

A new programme of road development in Moscow will see around 500km of roads being built by 2023. In addition, the programme will see work on 100 transport infrastructure projects and 50 pedestrian crossings. This will continue the programme that has seen around 100km of roads being built in Moscow each year since 2015. The plans have seen an increase in road works. During 2018, 127km of roads were built.

In the Philippines, a proposal has been made for the Tarlac-Pangasinan-La Union Expressway (TPLEx) to be extended. The US$441.6 million project is for a 59.4km extension to the TPLEx route. The proposal has been put forward by San Miguel Corp (SMC). The highway extension would help improve transportation to the north of Manila, the capital of the Philippines. The work would extend the route to San Juan from Rosario. The work would be carried out in three stages, with one 18.4km section between San Juan and

Strabag is to modernise nearly 15km of the D1 motorway in the Czech Republic under a contract worth nearly €73 million. Work includes complete renewal of the cement concrete surface between Velký Beranov and Měřín to be done within three years. Working on the project are the consortium leader Strabagm based in Austria, and its two partner companies Metrostav and EUROVIA’s Czech subsidiary. The project will begin with a temporary widening of the motorway in the direction of Prague to allow full reno

Plans are now being drawn up in India for the new Ganga River bridge crossing project. Costing US$395.3 million, the project has now been given the necessary approval by India’s prime minister. Construction is expected to take 40 months once work is underway, with completion due in 2023. The main bridge will measure 5,634m however the work includes building a 1,580m viaduct, 13 interchanges, four smaller bridges and a 110m flyover. It also includes four vehicular underpasses and a rail over bridge.

A series of highway projects have been budgeted for China’s Henan Province. In all some US$15.8 billion will be spent on 14 separate highway projects, which will stretch in excess of 1,000km in all. The projects are starting in 2022. The work includes building seven cross-provincial highways, three urban highways and two Zhengzhou City highways. They also include building two Beijing-Hong Kong-Macao Expressway diversion highways.

Major highway and bridge contracts have been awarded in California. The work will be carried out by Granite Construction. The firm will work on the US$113 million Cosumnes Bridge Replacement Project in Sacramento County. The company will also carry out the $410 million Highway 101 Carpinteria to Santa Barbara Project. This last involves upgrading a 17.4km stretch of the route, installing HOV lanes between Santa Barbara and Carpinteria. The company will remove a railway underpass and will replace four existi

Euro Auctions is celebrating 20 years since its first event in Dromore, Northern Ireland, on the same site that is now the company’s global headquarters. At the event, a one-day auction, 371 vehicle and equipment lots went under the hammer to aachieve sales close to €1.12 million, said Derek Keys, founder of the business. Euro Auctions expanded into England in 2000 with its first sale in Wetherby where it auctioned a selection of Volvo dump trucks from the Far East. A couple of years later the company acq

Caterpillar recently announced delivery of its 50,000th articulated truck from its Peterlee manufacturing facility in the UK. Cat started manufacturing branded articulated trucks at the site in 1985 and they are now “a key member of Caterpillar’s core product line,” said Brent Losey, product manager for Cat’s articulated trucks. Trader Construction Company of New Bern in the US state of North Carolina received the 50,000th unit during a recent ceremony at the Peterlee plant. Carl Huddle, president of

Bobcat has relaunched its training centre at its European headquarters in Dobris, the Czech Republic, as the Bobcat Institute. For a decade, Bobcat has hosted the training centre at its headquarters - Doosan Bobcat EMEA Campus – where it has been surrounded by the Bobcat factory and the company’s Innovation Centre. The Bobcat Institute consists of a large main building with four training rooms, each capable of holding up to 30 individuals. In addition to the classrooms, the facility also includes office

A mobile crushing, screening and scalping train from Sandvik is playing a key role in ensuring that Welsh quarry business Mason Brothers meets customers’ demands. Family business Mason Brothers Quarry Products has a long-standing relationship with Sandvik which goes back to the 1990s, said Alun Mason, managing director of Mason Brothers. The wide range of products produced at the quarry ranges from type 1 sub-base to ornamental and building stone. The company also supplies volumetric concrete, concret

The Canadian province of Nova Scotia will get US$224 million for road upgrades in 2019-20, a boost of $11.2 million over the current period. Lloyd Hines, the province’s transportation and infrastructure renewal minister, said much of the additional funding will be for twinning portions of the province’s 100 series highways, including the 101, 103, 104 and the 107 Sackville-Burnside connector. The plan includes rebuilding and upgrading gravel roads and around $15 million of the money has been earmarked

A lack of financing is jeopardising construction of the new E18 highway between Lysaker and Asker on the outskirts of Oslo. Media reports say that the Norwegian Road Administration (Statens Vegvesen) has received no funding for the project that is scheduled to start next year. The first phase of the project, between Lysaker and Ramstadsletta, has been scheduled for 2019-2024. Around 90,000 vehicles use the existing E18 road, a local thoroughfare. The new E18 will include cycle paths, pedestrian ways a

France is considering a 115km project to enlarge the A31 motorway between Nancy and Thionville near the border with Luxembourg. This project is expected to cost between €1.4-1.6 billion and work will be divided into three sections. The A31 autoroute, also known as l'Autoroute de Lorraine-Bourgogne, runs from the border with Luxembourg to Beaune where it joins the A6. It serves the cities of Metz, Nancy and Dijon and is heavily used in the holiday season as it is a convenient route for those travelling

Doosan Infracore North America is boosting its support with the opening of a new parts distribution centre in the US. This facility will serve the firm’s dealers and Doosan customers in the United States and Canada. Strategically located, the new parts distribution center allows Doosan Infracore North America is said allow better support for dealers and customers with service options, deeper inventory and faster parts delivery. The parts distribution centre is located adjacent to the Doosan Infracore Nor