Spanish firm Sociedad Ibérica de Construcciones Eléctricas (SICE) has secured a contract to upgrade highway infrastructure and operations in Bolivia.

Under the contract awarded by Bolivian road management authority Administradora Boliviana de Carreteras (ABC), SICE will build and supply checkpoints for weight and size control, toll collection stations and control centre.

Furthermore, SICE is required to carry out a comprehensive transportation study concerning the whole road network.

Financed by the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), the contract work is expected to be conducted over a period of 13 months.

Under the contract, SICE will carry out the design, construction, installation and commissioning of weighing and toll stations and control and monitoring centres, as well as a laboratory for metrological verification of weighing stations.

The company will also design six mobile weighing stations.

“Financed by the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), the contract work is expected to be conducted over a period of 13 months.”

In Bolivia, the lack of proper equipment for control cargo and passenger transportation is regarded as one of the causes of the rapid deterioration on roads.

The transportation study to be conducted will address this issue and generate traffic information, vehicle weights and dimensions to form a control and inspection strategy for weights, dimensions and toll collection.

The weighing and toll stations will be installed on the road that runs from La Paz to Oruro and Cochabamba, while four weights and dimensions control stations will be installed in Achica Arriba, Caracollo, Caihuasi and Suticollo cities.

Each of the stations will be equipped with high, medium and low-speed weighing systems, as well as a 3D vehicle classification and measurement system.

They will also be provided with automatic RFID identification systems, automatic licence plate reading, and an evader and leakage control system.