7
january-february 2015
international
construction
WORLDNEWS
2015
World of Concrete
February 3 - 6, 2015
(Seminars: February 2 - 6)
Las Vegas, US
World of Asphalt
March 17 - 19, 2015
Baltimore, US
Intermat
April 20 - 25, 2015
Paris, France
Plantworx
June 2 - 4, 2015
Bruntingthorpe, UK
M&T Expo
June 9 - 12, 2015
Sao Paulo, Brazil
Bauma ConExpoAfrica
September 15 - 18, 2015
Johannesburg, SouthAfrica
BICES
September 22 - 25, 2015
Beijing, China
ConExpo LatinAmerica
October 21-24, 2015
Santiago, Chile
International Construction
Equipment Forum (ICEF)
November 2 - 3, 2015
Amsterdam, TheNetherlands
Excon 2015
November 25 - 29, 2015
Bangalore, India
2016
Bauma
April 11–17, 2016
Munich Trade Fair Centre
Munich, Germany
EXHIBITIONDIARY
COLOMBIA
Salini Impregilo has
completed construction of a dam
and hydroelectric plant on the
SogamosoRiver in north-west
Colombia. The
€
650million
(US$ 775million) project took six
years to complete and employed
7,000 people.
The scheme comprises a 190m
tall dam and an underground power
station housing three turbines
capable of generating 820MW of
power. According to the contractor,
the new power plant will supply
about 10% of the country’s annual
energy requirements, with its 5,056
GWh per year capacity.
CHINA
Airport start
Construction has begun on a
new airport to serve the Chinese
capital, Beijing. Ground breaking
came at the end of December,
following approval from China’s
NationalDevelopment andReform
Commission (NDRC).
Beijing Daxing International
Airport will be built some 45 km
south of the city centre. The CNY
80 billion (US$ 12.9 billion)
project is designed to take pressure
off the existing Beijing Capital
Airport to thenorth-east of the city,
the third terminal of which was
only completed in 2008, ahead of
the BeijingOlympicGames.
The new airport is expected to
take four years to build and will
include four runways, a 700,000
m
2
terminal building and 150 gate
locations. Further development
phases are planned once the airport
is open.
The initial master plan for the
airport was developed by NACO,
a Dutch engineering consultant
specialising in airports. It envisaged
an eight-runway facility with a
capacity of up to 130 million
passengers per year.
Terminal1of thenewcomplexhas
been designed by ADP Ingénierie,
a subsidiary of Aéroports de Paris
Group.
Infrastructure associated with the
airport is expected to include a rail
link toBeijingSouth station, which
is located in the city. Direct links
to the nearby cities of Tianjin and
Hebei have also beenmooted.
The project is due for completion
inOctober 2018.
EUROPE
TEN-T studies
Plans to ensure that the Trans-
European Transport Network
(TEN-T) is fully operational by
2030 have taken a step forward
with the publication of nine studies
on the current state of the core
network corridors.
The European Commission
studies identify infrastructure
development
needs
requiring
some € 700 billion (US$ US$ 785
billion) of investment until 2030.
Violeta Bulc, EU Commissioner
forTransport, said, “Wehave to step
up our efforts tomake sure the core
networkwill be fully operational by
2030, to ensure smooth transport
flows for passengers and goods
throughout the EU.
For each TEN-T corridor, which
is led by a European Co-ordinator,
a team of external experts has
undertaken
a
comprehensive
study. They analysed the current
infrastructure
status,
located
problems hampering traffic flows
for passengers and freight, and
identified action to be undertaken
fromnow to 2030.
The results include preliminary
projects which aim at completing
cross-border
links,
removing
bottlenecks,
inter-connecting
transport modes and enhancing
inter-operability.
US
PCAup-beat
Residential housing starts will
increase in 2015 according to
the Portland Cement Association
(PCA).
PCA chief economist and group
vice-president Edward J. Sullivan
said he expected US housing starts
to increase +20% to 1.2 million
units in2015.This is up from some
950,000 starts in 2014, and strong
gains are also expected for 2016.
According toMr Sullivan, multi-
family units in particular should
see a significant increase in starts
compared to previous years with
a +12% jump from 2014 levels.
Nearly 400,000 multifamily starts
are expected in 2015 in addition
to 800,000 new units in the single-
familymarket.
“The forecast is based on
sustained strength in the labour
markets with more than 3 million
net new jobs created in both 2015
and 2016,” said Mr Sullivan. “In
addition, wage gains in the context
of sub-6% unemployment are
expected to reinforce labourmarket
fundamentals.”
Sustained strength in job creation,
coupled with a gradual shift in the
mix of jobs toward higher skill and
more significant wage pressures
suggest added strength to consumer
spending according toMr Sullivan.
