Construction and Infrastructure

Improvements to Pakistan’s major highways are critical to the future expansion of the country’s economy and relations with its neighbours. Jayne Alverca looks at how the National Highway Authority is responding to the challenge.

Economic growth in any form can only be sustained if it is underpinned by a solid infrastructure and road transport is always a key element, especially in countries such as Pakistan with a relatively short coastline.

Western Australia’s unique location makes it an ideal region to pioneer some of the world’s most innovative solar power solutions. Jayne Alverca reviews some of the recent achievements of Horizon Power.

Jeff Daniels looks at what could possibly be Europe’s largest construction project gearing up at the moment beneath the streets of London.

Draw a horizontal line smack through the centre of London from Heathrow Airport in the west to the financial district of Canary Wharf in the east, and you have a rough idea of where Britain’s biggest civil construction project is to be found.

Solving the world’s water problems is not going to be an easy task, but drought-hit Bitou Municipality in South Africa’s Western Cape is making an effort to relieve local water shortages through the construction of a new seawater desalination plant at Plettenberg Bay.

Amatola Water operates over an area of approximately 47,500 square kilometres in the central region of South Africa’s Eastern Cape province. Its vision is to extend that to the entire province; and it has taken long strides towards this goal.

Dutch construction company Ballast Nedam has signed an agreement to design and construct the Carolina Bridge across the Suriname River in South America.

The agreement was made with the Ministry of Public Works of Suriname.

The existing bridge, which crosses the river 50 kilometres south of the country’s capital Paramaribo, is currently unusable due to its state of disrepair.

The Suriname River is 480 kilometres long.

Bahrain International Airport (BIA) is to begin a new expansion program that is expected to increase the airport's capacity by 50 per cent.

"The plans we are initiating for an expanded international airport are essential to Bahrain's continued development, not only in providing businesses in Bahrain with the access they demand for the future, but also in bolstering the growing aviation and logistics industry in the kingdom," said Khalid Al Rumaihi, Chairman of the Bahrain Airport Company (BAC) in an interview with Arabian Business News.

To keep up with South Africa’s rapidly growing demand for electricity, and a distribution system in need of modernisation, state-owned utility company Eskom is undertaking a massive construction and development programme.

Mayor of London Boris Johnson has secured a £600 million bond issue to help finance the city’s Crossrail project.

The bonds will be issued in association with Lloyds Bank Corporate Markets—the first time for 17 years that a local authority has gone to the capital markets for finance in this way.

The planned Crossrail rail route, the newest rail line in the country and the biggest single extension to the south-east network in half a century, will connect Maidenhead in Berkshire with Shenfield in Essex, passing through the West End and Canary Wharf.

Life is not easy in the construction industry, even in South Africa; but Protech Khuthele’s history is an object lesson in how to entrench and expand a niche capability.