Construction and Infrastructure

India’s GVK has been granted environmental approval for its Alpha Mine and Rail Project in Queensland, Australia.

Following a four-year long assessment process, Australia’s federal environment minister Tony Burke has given an approval decision to construct and operate the Alpha Coal Mine and a railway line between the mine and the port at Abbot Point, near Bowen.

In another sign that a new Florida condo boom is under way, the Miami Herald last week reported that 45 new condo towers are in various stages of development for the Southeast Florida area, including about 1200 new units in the tiny beach town of Sunny Isles Beach, just north of Miami Beach.

Even more amazing, according to another report from Miami Condo Investments, three Miami projects that launched earlier this year, 1100 Millecento, BrickellHouse and MyBrickell, are already 97 percent sold out. Two of the three projects have not even broken ground yet. 

Preparations are being made to develop the Songwe River Basin in Kyela, Tanzania.

The African Water Facility (AWF), in partnership with the New Partnership for Africa’s Development—Infrastructure Project Preparation Facility (NEPAD-IPPF), hosted a meeting recently to launch the preparatory phase of the project.

The event was attended by more than 150 people, including local and national government officials from both countries and representatives from the beneficiary communities.

Toronto-based Plan Group has migrated from a construction industry contractor to an integrator of infrastructure technologies. Bill Kurtin, CEO and Glen Landry, Managing Director, Technology, talk about the role of collaboration and innovation in creating the healthcare facilities of the future.

Dust control and road stabilization are major issues in the United States. Twenty years after its invention, PennzSuppress D is finally being made available to a wider marketplace. Bruce Coulthard, president of PZS Stabilization, talks about this revolutionary product.

Some companies grow by spreading their wings; but one South African company is continuing to focus on the original business sector it started with.

Kenya is to develop new mass rapid transport systems to reduce traffic congestion in Nairobi and other major cities and to improve the country’s regional competitiveness.

The National Urban Transport Improvement Project (NUTRIP), which has received approval from the World Bank, will help to expand the capacity of Uhuru highway, which bisects Nairobi’s central business district, and to initiate rapid bus transit and commuter rail systems.  

The World Bank will invest $300 million in the project, while Kenya’s government will contribute $113 million.

Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania-based LB Foster has been awarded a $60 million contract—its largest ever for rail products—for the Honolulu Rail Transit Project.

The contract has been awarded by Kiewit/Kobayashi, a joint venture for the county-wide construction of the Honolulu Authority for Rapid Transportation (HART) passenger transit system.

Submarine fibre-optic cables are helping Africa keep up with rapacious growth in consumer demand and fulfil the ambitions of the Connect Africa Summit.

Africa experienced an explosion in demand for mobile voice services in the first decade of the 21st century, but if broadband Internet access is to come of age in the second decade, it will require a considerable amount of investment in infrastructure.

Political will, fiscal capability and technical ability have come together in Panama to help alleviate traffic congestion in the capital city with an elegant solution – El Metro de Panama.