Infrastructure

US needs a counter weight to China. So....
Vietnam starts work on Hanoi's first rail system
http://sg.news.yahoo.com/afp/20100926/tbs-vietnam-transport-rail-a179076.html

HANOI (AFP) - – Vietnam has started work on Hanois first urban rail system in an effort to ease traffic congestion in the capital, reports said Sunday.

A ground breaking ceremony was held Saturday for a 12.5 kilometre (7.8 mile) line, which will cost around one billion dollars, according to a news report on the government's website.

According to the Thanh Nien newspaper, Hanoi aims to build eight urban rail lines, five of which already have government approval.

The first, linking west Hanoi with the central railway station in the south of the capital, is expected to open in 2015. Two thirds of the line will be elevated and the rest will be underground, the paper said.

Russia eyes commercial gas deal with China next year
http://sg.news.yahoo.com/rtrs/20100927/tbs-russia-china-gas-21231dd.html

BEIJING, Sept 27 - A visit by Russian President Dmitry Medvedev to Beijing has not brought a deal on gas pricing with China, the vital element that would allow the world's top gas exporter to sell to the fast-growing Chinese market.

"We are still in talks, the talks will continue, we are now agreeing on separate parameters," Russia's Deputy Prime Minister Igor Sechin told reporters on Monday.

"Russia is ready to fully ensure China's increasing demand for gas... There is a mutual understanding. If we come to an agreement on all matters discussed -- we have no doubts in it in principle -- then Russian gas exports will start from 2015. We expect commercial contracts by the middle of 2011."

saw that article its a good one

China eyes new Silk Road to Europe amid political rift


ATHENS, Greece—China is laying the groundwork for a new Silk Road to Europe, holding out the promise of lucrative investments to a continent limping to economic recovery—despite the ideological gulf with the West.

Ahead of a furious row this week over the award of the Nobel Peace Prize to a dissident academic jailed by Beijing, Chinese Prime Minister Wen Jiabao completed landmark visits to Greece, Italy, and Turkey.

The accompanying business deals further extended the Asian powerhouse’s influence in Europe.
In Rome on Thursday, Wen sealed agreements worth 2.25 billion euros ($3.13 billion) including solar power and broadband Internet projects. He pledged to more than double trade to $100 billion by 2015.

A day later in Ankara, the Chinese PM signed another batch of contracts including an agreement for the joint construction of 4,500 kilometers (2,700 miles) of Turkish railway.

Turkey’s Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan styled the project “a new Silk Road,” a reference to the centuries-old trade network that has linked the Asian and Mediterranean worlds since antiquity.

http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/breakingnews/world/view/20101010-296952/China-eyes-new-Silk-Road-to-Europe-amid-political-rift

This is one way to escape the long arm of pirates..

Hoover Dam Bypass Bridge Set To Open Next Week

A soaring bypass bridge high above the Colorado River near Hoover Dam is set to open after nearly eight years and $240 million worth of work.

The 1,900-foot engineering wonder perched 890 feet above the water is expected to drastically cut travel time along the main route between Las Vegas and Phoenix, as motorists will no longer have to make their way across the dam and its security checkpoints at a snail's pace.

Federal Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood, Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer and U.S. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada were among federal and state officials expected for a Thursday morning dedication at the span linking the Silver and Grand Canyon states.

The bridge, which officially opens next week, is named for former Nevada Gov. Mike O'Callaghan and Pat Tillman, the former NFL player who quit the Arizona Cardinals to join the Army Rangers and died in Afghanistan under friendly fire. Family members of O'Callaghan and Tillman are expected at the bridge's dedication.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=130558054

http://www.prisonplanet.com/articles/july2007/270707tillmanexecuted.htm

PERFECT!

Private Investors Push Public Projects

Private investors are causing a stir as they become increasingly involved in building bridges and roads and buying public properties—sometimes even proposing projects that communities didn't ask for.

The issue is on vivid display in Virginia, where a developer in early October submitted an unsolicited proposal to expand a busy tunnel. That came just days after the state rejected a bid by private-equity investors seeking to buy cargo ports that weren't for sale.

snip
"As more and more states and municipalities come under budgetary pressures, private investments will be considered a viable alternative to municipal bonds," says Robert Dove, a managing director of Carlyle Group, which was among the bidders for the Virginia ports.

Last week, for example, New Jersey's governor killed a long-planned train tunnel to New York—the biggest public transit project in the country—saying the state couldn't afford it. The state is still hashing it out, but Karl Reichelt, executive vice president of Skanska Infrastructure Development, which is part of a group proposing to expand the tunnel in Virginia, is interested.

"If New Jersey doesn't move forward, we'd pop right in there and talk to them," Mr. Reichelt said.

Private-equity firms raised more than $17 billion for infrastructure so far this year, the first annual increase in fund raising since the credit crisis began in 2007, according to Probitas Partners, a research firm in San Francisco. A separate study by a group of big banks and law firms shows that more than $180 billion is available by private investors for infrastructure projects.

These so-called public-private partnerships have been popular in other parts of the world, but gained momentum in the U.S. only in recent years, as many states passed laws allowing such deals. Virginia and Georgia are among 14 states that allowed unsolicited bids, though since they began allowing these bids in 2005 Georgia has turned down every proposal. The state has now banned unsolicited proposals.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703631704575552531605119708.html

Just to be clear
Skanska is headquartered in Stockholm, Sweden
http://www.skanska.com/en/About-Skanska/Skanska-in-brief/

Private investors are causing a stir as they become increasingly involved in building bridges and roads and buying public properties—sometimes even proposing projects that communities didn't ask for.

lol

Saudi Kingdom to build world's tallest tower- report

Saudi-based Kingdom Holding Co 4280.SE plans to build the world's tallest tower as part of a project worth 75 billion riyals in the city of Jeddah, a newspaper report said on Thursday.

Alsharq Al-Awsat newspaper, citing Kingdom's Chairman Prince Alwaleed bin Talal, said the company will officially announce the project at a press conference in three weeks.

The skyscraper will be at the centre of the mixed-use project, which will stretch over 3.5 million square metres of land, the newspaper added.

It also said Kingdom Holding plans another development in the capital city of Riyadh with an estimated investment value of 25 billion riyals. It will include a park, a hotel and other entertainment elements, as well as 10,000 residential units.

snip
The world's tallest building at present is Dubai's 828-metre Burj Khalifa, developed by Emaar Properties EMAR.DU.
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSLDE69K04T20101021

good catch thanks

Chinese workers fuel India’s staggering infrastructure boom

Skilled Chinese workers are helping India expand its infrastructure at a frenetic pace, even as the two Asian giants compete for economic dominance.

Their presence in a nation of more than a billion people with staggering unemployment may appear incongruent. But the government says Indian workers lack the technical skilled needed to transform the country into a 21st-century economic powerhouse.

snip
India may be an IT superpower and producing thousands of doctors, lawyers and MBAs every year. But the biggest gap is in the availability of skilled electricians, carpenters, welders, mechanics and masons who can build mega infrastructure projects,” said Raghav Gupta, president at Technopak, a consultancy that released a report on skill development last year. “Most of these workers have to be trained on the job. And that often delays the projects and makes it more expensive.”

As the center of economic gravity shifts from the Atlantic to the Indian Ocean, analysts say, the world’s two fastest growing economies will transfer even more technology and skills.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/10/23/AR2010102303956.html

“the world’s two fastest growing economies will transfer even more technology and skills”

pretty blatant..