Road Structures

Austria’s Arlberg Tunnel is now on track for its planned upgrade. The work will focus on improving safety, in line with European requirements. The twin tube tunnel will benefit from new emergency exists and areas in which broken down vehicles can be parked, as well as sophisticated heat detection technology to provide alerts for vehicle fires and spraying systems. In all the upgrade work is likely to cost some €136 million. The work will be carried out by the PKE-Jäger-BEMO-Hinteregger partnership.

The World Bank is providing a US$133.54 million grant to Yemen. The funds will help pay for construction of the first phase of a 710km long highway. This new road will connect Sa’ada in the north of the country to the port city of Aden. The highway looks likely to be constructed in three phases. The first phase will be for a 140km stretch from Aden to Taiz. The project will cost some $2 billion. Another tranche of financial backing for the project will come from the Saudi Development Fund.

Ho Chi Minh City in Vietnam looks set to benefit from 14 infrastructure projects costing a total of US$9.44 billion. One of the key projects will be to improve and repair Luong Dinh Cua Street while another is for the building of the new Ha Noi Expressway-Eastern Ring Road link road. Loan facilities are being provided by the Sai Gon-Ha Noi Commercial Bank (SHB) to Phu My Construction (PMC). The construction programme also includes the Rach Chiec Bridge, five elevated highways and the Southern Ring Road. The

Demolition work is progressing on track on the old Innerbelt Bridge in the US city of Cleveland and spanning the Cuyahoga River. At present a demolition contractor is breaking up the structure in stages, using cutting gear and cranes to remove portions of the bridge in a phased programme of works. Once the demolition moves to a certain stage in a few months, the contractor will then be able to use explosives to demolish the remaining structure. Four of the truss bridge’s nine spans are being dismantled usi

Plans are being drawn up for a new highway connection that will help reduce congestion in Tanzania’s capital, Dar es Salaam and improve the city’s connections to the rest of the country. The Tanzanian Government is encouraging proposals for a public-private partnership project. The planned highway would stretch 100km from Dar es Salaam to Chalinze. The proposals are for a six lane highway, with three lanes of traffic in either direction. This project looks likely to be complimentary to th plannede Dar es Sa

A loan being provided by the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) will help pay for road upgrades in the Kyrgyz Republic. The money will be used to improve and upgrade the Osh-Batken-Isfana highway. The US$100 million loan is to the Kyrgyz Republic Government for a period of 40 years at 0.25%/year, with a grace period of 10 years.

Swedish firm Züblin Scandinavia, a subsidiary of STRABAG, will head the joint venture partnership building the Marieholmstunnel project in Swedish city Gothenburg. This project will be for an immersed tunnel, which will pass under the River Göta älv. The design & build agreement also comprises the mechanical and electrical works and has a total contract value of around €170 million. The owner of the project is the Swedish road and railway authority Trafikverket, to which the tunnel is to be handed over in O

In Colombia the firm Estructura Plural Mario Alberto Huertas-Constructora MECO has been awarded the Girardot-Puerto Salgar 4G highway concession. The US$674 million concession was awarded following a short delay due to legal complexities by Colombia's national infrastructure agency ANI, reports Business News Americas. The 214km Girardot-Puerto Salgar highway is in central Colombia and the concession package includes the construction of 190km of the route, of which 22km will be totally new. A 135km stretch w

In Hong Kong plans are moving forward with regard to the construction of the new Lam Tin Tunnel. The tunnel will be around 2.6km long and form the major stretch of a new 4.2km road link connecting Lam Tin with Tseung Kwan O South. The Tseung Kwan O to Lam Tin Tunnel project also includes the construction of a number of interchanges, pedestrian walkways and cycle lanes. A key segment of the work is the construction of a 1.2km single one-lane slip road partly in the form of tunnel connecting Tseung Kwan O and