Road Structures

Plans for a major new bridge project have been given the go-ahead by the Chinese Government. The project calls for the construction of a second bridge spanning Hangzhou Bay. The new bridge will provide a more direct connection between the economically important cities of Ningbo in Zhejiang Province and Shanghai. The project looks likely to cost in the region of US$2.95 billion to construct, including the connecting roads. The bridge will shorten the travel distance between the cities from 200-160km.

Proposals have been put forward for a tunnel link in Bulgaria that would be Europe’s longest. The 37km long twin tube tunnel would form part of Bulgaria’s Struma Highway, which runs 150km from Dakalovo to the Greek border. The tunnel option has been proposed largely due to environmental reasons. The route of the highway takes it through the area of the Kresna Gorge but on both environmental and technical grounds, building the road on the surface is out of the question and the best solution is to construct a

Roads and other infrastructure in the Mexican state of Michoacan will benefit from an US$827.84 million (MXN 11 billion) investment, according to Mexico’s Secretariat of Communications and Transport (SCT). The huge cash injection includes funds for seven motorway projects worth over MXN 4.7 billion. The Subsecretary for Infrastructure, Raul Murrieta Cummings, has revealed that the expansion of Arco Norte and the western Morelia bypass are also among the earmarked investment projects, as are the Zitacuaro-

The Public Works Authority (ASHGAL) of Qatar has given Larsen & Toubro (L&T) a contract worth US$599.13 million (INR 36.55 billion) to design and build the Al Wakrah Bybass Road. Scheduled to take 32 months, the high profile project will involve building 11km of road with 10 lanes and four future lane sections with additional collectors/distributor roads, frontage roads and ramps. The new freeway will provide access to the existing and planned developments via five major interchanges comprising of 20 bri

Slovakia plans to use €4 billion of its €15.3 billion EU funding package for 2014-2020 on road projects. The projects include the construction of several new stretches of the D1 and D3 motorways, as well as repairs and modernisations of Class II and Class III roads. The government in cooperation with the regions are currently drafting a strategic plan for the development and maintenance of roads at a regional level.

Deputy Mayor of Moscow for Town-Planning Policy and Construction Marat Khusnullin says over 200km of roads and 60km of subway lines will be built in the city in the next three years. A total 46 transport facilities will also be constructed, the Deputy Mayor has confirmed.

In the UK a contractor carried out a successful overnight demolition of a highway bridge. Demolition firm S Evans and Sons carried out the work, as a sub-contract to main contractor Balfour Beatty. The work involved removing the pedestrian bridge located close to the town of Stafford. The bridge spanned the busy M54 motorway and the work was carried out at night to minimise disturbance to the traffic flow.

Official approval has been given to the feasibility report for the Chuzhou-Huainan Expressway project in China’s Anhui province. Construction of the US$1.35 billion expressway will be carried out during 2014 and the projects is due for be completion within 3 years. The 125km route will feature four lanes in either direction and will have a speed limit of 120km/h. The expressway project includes seven interchanges.