Construction and Infrastructure

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.

There’s work to be done in Africa, the Middle East and—following the lead it took in the movement that is being called Arab Spring—in Egypt itself. Eng Hisham el Kheshen, CEO of Samcrete Development, and Yahia Adly, business development director of Samcrete Investments, tell John O’Hanlon how the group is ready to do its part.

Building relationships through personal service lays a foundation of confidence that encourages customers to come back.

Building supplies specialist Wolseley has reported a jump in trading profits on the back of healthy growth in the US, it has been announced.

The UK-based company’s trading profits for the three months ending 30 April rose to £131 million, up 30 per cent from a year earlier. Revenue also rose, by one per cent to £3.27 billion.

Growth of 10 per cent in like-for-like revenue in the US helped to offset weaker growth in the UK, due to a slowdown in the construction industry.

South Africa is putting great effort into improving living standards for its more disadvantaged citizens, as Alan Swaby discovers.