Road Structures

Russian road project construction tenders faced a series of serious problems in 2016. Around 30% of the tenders planned in 2016 actually fell through, according to the road agency FAS. The tenders were worth some US$4.78 billion. However the FAS intends to ensure that the majority of the road project tenders for the 2017-2019 period go through. The FAS is also intent on tackling cartels operating in the road construction sector and introduce fair competition to the industry.

Work on a new 550km-long coastal highway is to commence in northern Vietnam. The highway will be built across five provinces and will connect with Haiphong City. The planned route will run through the provinces of Thanh Hoa, Ninh Binh, Nam Dinh, Thai Binh and Quang Ninh. The project should be complete by 2020 should all go to plan and is to be carried out under the PPP model. The cost of the entire highway has yet to be revealed. However the 61km stretch through Thahn Hao Province looks set to have a pricet

The Peruvian Government is evaluating the potential for a new central highway. The route of the highway would keep it at a distance from rivers so as to reduce the risk of flooding. Existing highways have suffered serious flooding as well as landslides in Peru in recent months. Constructing the new highway could cost from US$ 1billion to $1.5 billion while the work would take around five years to carry out.

A new bridge will be built spanning the Samur River, which forms part of the border between Azerbaijan and Russia. Construction work is expected to commence later this year. Much of the initial financing for the bridge project will come from Azerbaijan’s budget, although Russia’s Federal Road Agency will pay its portion in due course, as well as funding work on the connecting roads. The project should be complete by 2019 if all goes to plan.

A combination of federal and state funding will help pay for key road projects in the Australian state of Queensland. In all some US$381.2 million (A$500 million) will pay for five major road projects in the state. One of the biggest projects involves widening the Pacific Motorway between Mudgeeraba to Varsity Lakes to six lanes. This work will help boost capacity, reducing delays for drivers using the route. In addition, the work also includes building additional lanes on the Pacific Motorway where it meet

Contracts for a major highway project in Kenya have now been awarded. Two Chinese contractors will handle two sections of the new highway with the two portions of the project worth nearly US$175 million in all. The project involves improvements to the 206km road that runs through Isebania, Kissi and Ahero in Kenya to upgrade it to highway status. The project is of regional importance for East Africa as it will also connect with South Sudan and Tanzania and become part of a new road connection between the th

It was “dirty work” for drainage engineers from Lanes Group in the UK when they recently removed 400tonnes of silt and debris from a culvert in northern England. Before sludge removal started, the 3m-wide concrete box culvert under the A38 on the outskirts of the city of Derby had been full almost to its roof. Lanes Group's East Midlands depot, based in Derby, desilted the culvert in a 17-day operation for North Midland Construction, working for Highways England, under its civil engineering framework.

The Queensferry Crossing forms the centrepiece of a major upgrade to the cross-Forth transport corridor in the east of Scotland. It will be the longest three-tower, cable-stayed bridge in the world and represents a Scottish Government capital investment of more than €1.5 billion. The 2.7km Queensferry Crossing is alongside the Forth Road Bridge and will carry the M90 motorway across the Firth of Forth between Lothian, at South Queensferry, and Fife, at North Queensferry. Each of the three towers are 207m

CTE has signed a new distribution agreement in South Africa. The firm has established the dealer agreement with Smith Capital Equipment and is for the CTE B-LIFT and CTE ZED truck-mounted units and for the CTE TRACCESS spiderlifts. Smith Capital Equipment has been active in South Africa for more than 40 years in the lifting sector for aerial platforms and cranes, as well as drilling equipment. Smith Capital Equipment will now distribute the CTE B-LIFT telescopic truck-mounted platforms, with lift heights f

A budget worth nearly US$252 million will help pay for bridge design and construction work as well as bridge repair activities in 12 states across Nigeria. The budget has been approved by Nigeria’s Federal Executive Council (FEC). Meanwhile $475 million is being budgeted for the engineering and consultancy work required for the Second Niger Bridge that will connect the city of Asaba in Delta State with Onitsha in Anambra State. The new bridge is desperately required as the existing structure is in poor cond