On 26 April 2008, President Hamed Karzai and U.S. Ambassador William Wood attended the contract signing between IRP prime contractor LBG/B&V JV and subcontractor BSC/C&C JV for construction of the Gardez to Khost Road.

The $86 million dollar construction contract provides for the development of 101 kilometers of road, one of the most important road projects in the East of Afghanistan. When completed in late 2009, this road will reduce the travel time from Khost to Kabul by approximately four hours.

BSC-C&C JV is a large road construction company that has successfully worked with LBG in the past on the construction of the Kabul-Kandahar, Kandahar-Herat, Jalalabad-Asmar, and Lashkargah-Ring Roads.

Although Khost is historically isolated in the winter months, this year, USAID funded the winter maintenance work which helped keep the key road open. The $98 million Gardez-Khost road improvements program will provide the province with an all-weather, asphalt road that will connect this province to Gardez, Kabul, and the Ring Road.