Features

Dan Gilkes reports on a Belgian highway upgrade When the Ministry of Public Works in the Belgian State of Flanders decided to reconstruct and resurface 19km of the N49 Antwerp-Knokke Expressway, continuously reinforced concrete paving (CRCP) with an exposed aggregate surface was the natural material choice. Indeed exposed aggregate, with its high grip and low noise benefits, has been the first option for all motorway surfacing work in Belgium since the 1980s. However, the €15.65 million contract is not a li

Empty environmental commitments from governments, falling bitumen quality and the impact of the economic crisis - DenimoTech asked some of its global distributors about the challenges of today’s markets - Kristina Smith was there to listen in Competition from Chinese manufacturers; highways abandoned half-built; the worst year for road building in the last 20 years. These are challenging times for DenimoTech’s distributors whose goal is to sell the firm’s bitumen emulsion and polymer modified bitumen plants

Leading asphalt plant manufacturers have recently unveiled their latest products aimed at customers looking for significant efficiency gains through the use of durable and lasting technology. Guy Woodford looks at some of the new batch Benninghoven showcased a wide variety of its new and innovative asphalt plants and individual plant components during its week-long Open Days event last month at the German firm’s HQ in Mülheim. Launched earlier this year, the MMX80 Continuous Asphalt Plant is capable of prod

The Honorary and the Outreach Committees of the 17th IRF World Meeting & Exhibition held their first meetings in Paris, France to review the management plan and concept program of what promises to be the most important global event for the road industry in 2013. The Honorary Committee, chaired by current IRF chairman and mayor of Riyadh H.E. Eng. Abdullah Al-Mogbel, and representation of each major region of the world, met in Paris on September 7 at the headquarters of the well-known French firm Colas. Asse

Warm mix asphalt can save energy and the environment, cutting emissions of carbon dioxide and other harmful gases, but are environmental arguments enough for clients and contractors? Kristina Smith asks Though popular in the United States, warm mix asphalt is still a technology waiting to happen in the rest of the world. Chemical companies who imagined a meteoric rise in sales are still waiting for the right economic conditions to allow warm mix to start taking serious market share from hot mix. “In Europe

Bolstered by building machines for Caterpillar and high demand for its VDS equipped excavators, Wacker Neuson has greatly increased its compact equipment building capability in Linz - Nick Johnson reports At a time when some other construction equipment makers have still scaled back their operations following the global economic crisis, Wacker Neuson has been busy building new facilities and increasing its production capacity. Last month the company officially opened its new compact equipment production fac

Major new tunnel construction projects will, on completion, help secure more reliable journey times for hundreds of thousands of people across the world. Meanwhile, as Guy Woodford reports, leading ITS solution companies have been providing vital equipment for major road tunnels The Martina Tunnel Boring Machine (TBM), a 4,500tonne Herrenknecht Earth Pressure Balance Shield said to have a world record diameter of 15.55m, has required just under a year to build the first of two tunnel tubes for the 2.5km lon

The Russian road building industry is on the verge of big changes as it bids to improve quality and speed of construction says Eugene Gerden The Russian road building industry is on the verge of big changes as the national government considers creating conditions to attract foreign companies to build roads in the country. According to a recent order of President Vladimir Putin, due to poor quality and high cost of road construction, there is a need for the development of a mechanism to attract foreign compa

Innovative technology is use is providing efficient, clean burning engines - Mike Woof reports The development of new diesel engine technology has, for the off-highway equipment sector, been the single most expensive research field for the industry since these machines first started being manufactured. Aimed at reducing the emissions of nitrous oxide as well as particulate matter, in a phased series of stages the engine emission improvements will make major changes to the construction sector. In real world

Best known as an equipment maker, JCB has been steadily building its profile in the engine market – Mike Woof reports JCB has now produced over 200,000 engines, despite having entered this market as recently as 2004, while the company is also launching an all-new diesel. The company has built over 17,000 engines at its JCB Power Systems plant, and in excess of 30,000 atits factory in India where production started as recently as April 2011. Alan Tolley, director engine programmes said that, “…2004 was a tur