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Many cities want to show off their tourist credentials by driving tour operators around well-maintained, scenic routes and even make a video to lure travellers. But sometimes it pays to take a somewhat different line, as the Californian city of San Francisco did in 2012. San Francisco’s hilly streets became a global image for the Pacific coast city after the 1968 Hollywood blockbuster movie Bullitt. The star Steve McQueen, driving a fastback Ford Mustang, pursued at breakneck speed the villain, who was d

HEXAGON LIVE - the digital world becomes reality. Everyone in the construction and infrastructure maintenance sector faces the same great challenge - create reality with design through efficiency. But, as designs become more complex, how to gain efficiency is the real trick. These challenges are overcome only by people dedicated to solving problems. That puts them among the world’s innovators, said Ola Rollen, chief executive of technology information company Hexagon, during his welcoming keynote address to

The Agua Negra tunnel project that will connect Chile and Argentina has now passed a further legislative stage. The Chamber of Deputies in Chile approved the second protocol for the construction of the Agua Negra link. When complete the new tunnel will connect Argentina’s San Juan Province with Chile's Coquimbo Region. The tender process for the project should be launched in July 2015. The tunnel will be of major importance for both countries, providing an important link and carrying traffic that now has to

The US president recently signed a short term extension for highway funding. This two month extension will provide funding for highway infrastructure until the end of July. This is a very temporary measure made as the US Government has so far been unable to agree the longer term deal that will guarantee highway investment. The president did propose a six-year transportation bill worth some US$478 billion. This would have given the necessary funds to deliver the much-needed investment in the country’s transp

If you couldn’t make it to Germany this year for the International Transport Forum’s Annual Summit, you can watch the live webcasts on the ITF website starting today. From this morning, Wednesday, at 11:00 Central European Time, the live webcast of the event will be available directly at this link: http://2015.internationaltransportforum.org/

The UK’s biggest precast concrete event has taken place at Leicester Tigers Stadium in Leicester, country Leicestershire, England. Sponsored by Tekla, PRECAST2015 on Thursday 21 May has been hailed a great success with over 60 exhibitors showcasing the industry’s latest products to more than 400 delegates in attendance. The exhibition was packed with seminars, live demonstrations, and networking sessions taking place throughout the day. Delegates were able to attend guest speaker-led briefings on key to

Canada-based Canam-Bridge has been chosen to fabricate the superstructure for the Champlain bridge project in Montreal as well as to supply steel. Marc Dutil, chief executive of Canam, a specialist bridge superstructure fabricator, expects at least 45,000tonnes of steel will be required for the 3.4km bridge that will span the St. Lawrence River which leads to the Great Lakes of North America. The contract is expected to be completed after a formal deal is reached between the SNC-Lavalin consortium con

A survey by oil firm Castrol reveals that Indonesia’s capital Jakarta suffers the worst traffic delays of any city in the world. Turkey’s commercial centre Istanbul comes second in the congestion study, with Mexico City in third place. Castrol’s Magnatec Stop-Start Index says that Jakarta’s drivers suffer some 33,240 stop-starts/year, equivalent to 27.22% of their total travel time being stationary.

Work is close to completion on a new inter-ocean highway in Honduras. This 392km road runs between the Pacific Ocean and Atlantic Oceans and is at present around 80% complete. Called the Canal Seco, this new road should be finished in the first quarter of 2017. Work still needs to be carried out on a 100km long section featuring four lanes. This portion of the project is costing some US$300 million, with funding being provided by CABEI.

Construction costs are increasing for a key road tunnel in the German city of Stuttgart. The work on the Rosenstein road tunnel looks set to be some €40 million more expensive than was initially expected. As a result the 1.8km tunnel will now come with a price tag of over €270 million. The tunnel should be ready for traffic in 2020. Funding for the project is being provided jointly, with the German Government and the federal state of Baden-Württemberg providing some €112 million of the financing required.

MOBA and Volz Consulting are setting up a new joint venture aimed at process optimisation and documentation in asphalt road construction. The partners say that the core of the new business is the formation of a software system for construction process optimisation. This has been developed by Volz Consulting and is called BauProzessOptimierung ("construction process optimisation") – or BPO ASPHALT for short.

Bridge construction has sometimes been called theatre, with many acts and players building up to a finale. There is no better place to watch good theatre than from a prestigious box seat. This is especially true for the new Tappen Zee Bridge that is taking shape across the Hudson River in the US state of New York. In this case the box seat is just that – a box that sits high atop the old bridge, and it is occupied by a pair of peregrine falcons and their three babies. The family can be seen on-line thanks