News

Work to install a new bridge for the UK’s busiest rail freight line has been carried out over the A160 at the Port of Immingham. The project forms part of the Port of Immingham Improvement Scheme, a €118.15 million (£88.4 million) series of works being carried out on behalf of Highways England. The project involves upgrading 5km of the A160 from single carriageway to dual carriageway, and constructing a number of new structures. Because of the volume of rail traffic using the stretch of track, the new bridg

MOBA UK and Highway Data Systems (HDS) have formed a joint venture to provide road builders with sensing technology and HDS/MATest’s materials testing. MOBA’s hardware is used to capture data from a range of sensors on the paving machine. HDS delivers post-paving quality control testing using its vehicle mounted systems. MOBA is based in Limburg, Germany, and Highway Data Systems, has offices in Glasgow, Scotland, and in Hitchin, England.

Topcon Positioning Group has acquired a significant share of Finnish design software specialist Viasys VDC. The company offers a comprehensive suite of tools and services for building Virtual Design and Construction (VDC) models for infrastructure and site-work projects. This will add to Topcon’s portfolio of (BIM) technologies. The VDC models from Viasys can be used to optimise the construction process throughout a project lifecycle delivering better quality, higher efficiency and reduced costs.

A devaluing Canadian dollar has pushed up the cost for building a signature Windsor-Detroit bridge by around US$2.5 billion, according to Canadian media reports. The increase more than doubles what was believed needed by the Canadian government to construct the Gordie Howe Bridge, named after a Canadian ice hockey player who played most of his career for the Detroit Red Wings. The toll bridge, to be built under a public private partnership, will link the US city of Detroit, in the state of Michigan, w

The planned Penang project is postponed in Malaysia. This major road tunnel project will be delayed. The project is expected to cost US$1.42 billion and the work will be carried out by the Consortium Zenith BUCG (CZBUCG). For the first phase, three highways with a combined length of 21.2km will be constructed. They are the Air Itam to Tun Dr Lim Chong Eu Expressway bypass, the Gurney Drive to Tun Dr Lim Chong Eu Expressway bypass and the Jalan Tanjung Bungah-Teluk Bahang paired-road. The delay has been attr

A joint venture between Phuong Thanh Investment and Construction (Phuong Thanh) and Cong Thanh Investment and Construction (Cong Thanh) has received an investment licence from Quang Ninh province, Vietnam to upgrade the National Highway 18's Ha Long-Mong Duong section.

The governor of the US state New York, Andrew Cuomo, said he wants to spend US$22 billion over the next five year on maintaining aging roads and bridges. Cuomo also wants to give the agency responsible for maintaining the state’s major cross-state tolled freeway, the 920km Thruway, $1 billion so the agency – New York State Thruway Authority - can freeze tolls at their current rate until 2020. US media reported that his plan would also eliminate tolls for agricultural traffic. He would also offer a t

Egis Projects and its partner Fulton Hogan Construction have won a major contract for the operation and maintenance of the WestConnex highway link in New South Wales Australia. The package was awarded by Sydney Motorway Corporation (SMC) to Fulton Hogan Egis O&M (FHEO&M). The partners hold equal 50% shares in the project. Egis has its share in the Australian project through its Australian subsidiary Egis Projects Asia Pacific.

In the Algerian province of Oran, construction of the second ring road linking Belgaid to El-Kerma is 60% complete and should be open by June. Also, the motorway between Oran port and the East-West motorway, costing around $448.46 million, is due to be complete in July 2017, according to a report in Le Quotidien d'Oran. Work is being done by the Algerian-Turkish group ENGOA-MAKYOL and the project is being overseen by Agence nationale des autoroutes (ANA). Widening of the CW46 linking Sidi Marouf to

Financially delinquent contractors working on Indian projects will, from now on, find they are labelled a “non-performer” and barred from further work until they remedy their cash flow. The move by the National Highway Authority of India (NHAI) is an attempt to speed up site work and complete public-private partnership road projects on time. Under the new policies, firms that delay construction or fail to inject their share of capital into their projects will be barred from participating in fresh bids un

The cost of building the Padma Bridge in Bangladesh will be nearly three times the US$2.61 billion estimated in 2011. Also on the rise is the cost of flood prevention work in the form of levee construction – called river training in Bangladesh. The addition of 1.3km of work at the Mawa end of the bridge means the total cost is now $1.2 billion, up from $1.1 billion. Apart from $200 from the $1 billion loan from India the project is not using any foreign financing, according to a report in the Daily S

Strong measures in Spain have helped reduce the country’s road fatality rate enormously in recent years. Tougher enforcement of road rules commenced in 2004, with a notable drop in speeding and drink driving, resulting in a reduce rate of crashes. However a recent report from the Spanish motoring body RACC reveals that the figures have hit a plateau, with road fatalities for 2015 similar to those in 2014. This is the third consecutive year that Spain’s road fatality rates have remained broadly unchanged. Th

Shiyan City in China’s Hubei Province has seen a major increase in its road and highway network, due to significant spending on road construction in the area. Between 2011 and 2015, the total length of the road network in Shiyan City increased to 26,989km, following spending of some US$7.07 billion on road construction by the authorities. The network expansion programme also included building four highways, with a total length of 522km while the rural road network grew by 7,425km in all. The development of

A report from Cambodia’s General Commissariat of National Police gives cause for concern at country’s high rate of road crashes. Fatalities from road crashes in 2015 rose to 2,265, a climb of 5% compared to 2014. There were 9,775 people injured in road crashes in Cambodia in 2015, a drop of 4% compared with 2014. An accurate figure for the number of road crashes in 2015 has yet to be released by the General Commissariat of National Police but an estimate puts this at around 4,600, compared with the official

Japan’s National Police Agency has revealed that the country’s road death figures increased slightly in 2015 compared with 2014. Total road fatalities for Japan in 2015 stood at 4,117, an increase of 0.1% from the previous year. There were 536,789 crashes in Japan during 2015, which injured 665,126 people. Of particular concern is the data showing that traffic deaths for those aged 65 or over rose by 2.5% to 2,247 in all, a worrying 54.6% of the total road fatality figure. Official information has not so fa