Inter-American Development Bank

Construction of the Interamericana Norte highway in Costa Rica is said to be proceeding on track. Work is being carried out on the 50km Canas-Liberia section of the project. The Ministry of Public Works and Transport (MOPT) says that studies for the Canas-Limonal stretch of the new highway have been completed. The studies will then have to be submitted before the country's road authority Conavi to commence the tender process. A contract is expected to be granted by the middle of 2015. Funding could be provi

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.

Paraguay’s Ministry of Public Works and Communications (MOPC) hopes to finalise a US$100 million loan with the Inter-American Development Bank (IADB) for construction of new roads. The loan, expected to be signed at the end of November, will be for construction of around 400km of new roads and 2km of new bridges. Once the loan is signed, MOPC hopes to open tenders for the projects in December. Paraguay also plans to award infrastructure projects for a record $758 million in the last three months of th

The Latin America and Caribbean Region suffers from a high number of crashes on rural roads and also in the urban areas. Road crashes are now one of the leading causes of death in the region, especially for those aged 5-44. There are around 100,000 reported road fatalities/year in Latin America and the Caribbean while over 5 million/year are injured. Data from the World Health Organisation (WHO) shows that the death and serious injury rates are 10-20 times higher than in other industrialised regions, highli

Paraguay’s Ministry of Public Works and Communications (MOPC) is this year said to be planning to invest US$500 million in the South American country’s roads. The figure is said to be part of a proposed infrastructure investment of $7.66 billion for the period 2013-2016. Among the 2014 road projects will be the estimated $84.46 million repair of Route 8 -72.9kms – put out to tender by the MOPC in December 2013. All bids must be submitted on 29 January 2014. Route number 9 -Transchaco- between Mariscal Est

Plans are now in hand to develop the highways of Nicaragua, a Central American country that has suffered from poor infrastructure investment in the past. The funding will come from the Inter-American Development Bank (IADB). Some US$91.5 million has been approved by the IADB to finance highway projects in Nicaragua between 2014 and 2018. While this sum may not seem as substantial as the investment being seen in other countries around the world, it will make an enormous difference to this small Central Ameri

A new partnership between Jamaica and the UK is intended to reduce road deaths in the Caribbean country. This novel agreement on improving road safety forms part of international twinning programme. The Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) and the International Transport Forum (ITF) at the OECD are joining forces for this twinning initiative. Under the programme Jamaica and the UK will promote the implementation of best practices in road safety data collection. The goal of the twinning is to help Jamaica a

A US$250 million loan has been agreed for a huge motorway upgrade scheme in southern Brazil. The loan from the Inter-American Development Bank (IADB) means a total of $319.47 million (BRL 650mn) is now available for the Pacto por Santa Catarina programme. The 25-year deal includes a 66 month loan grace period. The first phase of the Pacto programme will include an investment of $163.19 million in ten projects covering 222kms. The projects include the construction of new roads as well as asphalting and recov

A joint international road safety award has been presented to the Spanish Road Association and the Inter-American Development Bank. The IRF International Award on Road Safety was given for the Road Safety Strategy in Latin America and Caribbean (Diagnosis, Toolkit and Pilot Tests) project, which developed by the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) with the technical support of the Spanish Road Association (SRA). This forms part of the IRF Global Road Achievement Award (GRAA) 2012 and is one of the most im

A new road in Bolivia is planned to improve connections between Montero and Yapacani. A loan worth US$122 million for the project is being provided by the Inter-American Development Bank (IADB). Work on this four-lane road is being managed by Bolivia's road company ABC and the tender process is expected to open shortly. The 70km section of road will form part of the new Santa Cruz-Cochabamba highway. At present Bolivia's road network has a total length of 74,831km and this new highway project will help impr