Features

Articulated dumptrucks are highly versatile and new developments continue to extend productivity The ADT market has been one of the fastest growing product areas in recent years. In the past ADTs were niche products that sold particularly well in Northern Europe (and Scandinavia and the UK in particular) as well as South Africa for many years, but these have now become popular worldwide. The number of manufacturers in the market has grown too. Just 10-15 years ago the only serious ADT manufacturers building

Ian Fraser, Tensar International’s director of application technology, looks at the latest lessons learned from the flood-hit Workington Bridge project in Cumbria, North West England. Rarely has a disaster like the Cumbrian floods demonstrated with more clarity the benefit of designing working platforms and bridge abutments to tested performance standards, as opposed to slavishly following accepted, but often much less efficient, design norms.

Characteristics of traffic speed and flow in managed freeways - *Dr Adrian Withill. In order to maximise the benefits of existing infrastructure, in terms of reduced delays and increased safety, many governments have recently been introducing projects that measure traffic speed and flow and automatically introduce advisory or mandatory speed limits. Such schemes tend to offer relatively quick wins at relatively lower capital costs than traditional highway construction. In light of the current world economy,

New developments in the software sector will improve construction efficiency. Standards organisation BSI is working with government, industry bodies, and private construction practices to create best practice standards for implementing Building Information Modelling (BIM). In 2011 the UK Government announced that all suppliers that wish to bid for public sector construction contracts must use BIM tools and techniques from 2016, making its implementation commercially critical for companies that wish to apply

Billions of dollars are invested each year in highway construction and maintenance projects across the world. Up to 5% of these funds are estimated to be lost on account of insufficient ethical and financial oversight. Highway Agencies and tendering authorities are particularly at risk. Implementing financial integrity principles stretches public budgets further and is beneficial to the relation with private sector contractors. According to the World Bank, the most common forms of wrongdoing are collusion

Held every four years since 1952, IRF World Meetings have always offered the international road community a rare opportunity to present what they do best and discuss what they could do better. As he prepares to take on the role of chairman of the Outreach Committee, Jean-Claude Roffé, a senior manager at Colas, notes “there isn’t a single recipe for successful World Meetings, but collective experience gained over the last half-century provides guidance in at least three areas:” Local support, global succes

We meet with Dr. Essam Sharaf, the former Prime Minister of Egypt, who has been honoured as IRF Personality of the Year for 2011 On 28 March, at a moving ceremony packed with IRF friends and delegates from all over the world, the IRF Personality of the Year Award for 2011 was formally presented to Dr. Essam Abdel-Aziz Sharaf. Discerned annually since 1951, the Award honours individuals universally acknowledged as having made particularly inspirational contributions to the fields of road infrastructure and

Research in the US has shown that using Intelligent Compaction (IC) for quality control purposes can lead to longer-lasting pavements and therefore lower whole life costs. Now the major roller manufacturers are investing heavily in developing new technologies that will meet emerging specifications in the States. “It may take five to ten years but I think that IC will be widely used for both soils, aggregate base and asphalt pavement materials in the US,” said Bob Horan, senior regional engineer at the Asph