Features

Waste & Resources Action Programme (WRAP) is a UK government-funded body designed to encourage greater resource efficiency. This body completed a trial with contractor Balfour Beatty and the Highways Agency to test the innovative use of recycled organic compost along roadside embankments.

Leica Geosystems says that its new Viva TS12 performance robotic package offers a comprehensive package of surveying solutions.

AT THE TIME of year it is worth considering how strong the construction market will be towards the end of 2010 and on into 2011. The build-up to the Bauma construction equipment exhibition in Munich, the world's largest exhibition, has helped fuel new product introductions from manufacturers, attracted contractors to visit the event and brought healthy interest to the construction sector as a whole.

Light and illumination equipment supplier Thorn Lighting, part of the Zumtobel Group, is to add a basic version of Lighting Reality's design and calculation simulation software to its products, initially for those sold in France and potentially across Europe.

Savoy Computing in the UK has been quick to launch a new version of its AutoTrack swept-path analysis software to take advantage of the latest AutoCAD 2012 platform.

British scanning company 3D Laser Mapping is hoping to benefit from a £3 million ($5 million) fund announced recently by the UK government for police forces to purchase laser scanning technology for accident recording and investigation.

Recycling is a key issue for asphalt road construction, with many technologies now coming to market. Bith an ever increasing emphasis on sustainability forcing change in the construction sector in Europe and North America, the highway sector now has to seek new solutions.

New advanced software is being released for use by those involved in highway design as Adrian Greeman reports. The growing importance of BIM, building or project information modelling, as a design and construction process, and not just 3D modelling, is the driving force for the latest 2012 versions of Autodesk's comprehensive range of software for civil engineers. This is reflected in a new packaging of its various software tools into suites (along the lines of Microsoft's office suites) tailored to variou