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New crash data from New Zealand points to a worrying trend for car occupants. In around 30% of fatal crashes, lack of seatbelt use is a primary factor in occupant deaths. An analysis of 200 fatal crashes in which occupants were not using seatbelts shows that 75% of those killed were male. Meanwhile 84% of the incidents occurred on rural roads. Many of those killed were young drivers while alcohol also played a role in many of the incidents. Research suggests that around 90% of vehicle occupants in New

A loan package from the World Bank will help pay for a major rural road programme in India. The US$210 million loan is being used for rural road development in Madhya Pradesh State. The upgrade work will see a total of 10,000km of gravels roads in Madhya Pradesh State being surfaced with asphalt, while a further 510km of new rural roads will be built in the state and will be surfaced with asphalt. This will be for the Madhya Pradesh Rural Connectivity Project.

A new road development project in Myanmar is now underway. The work will see and improved connection between Paletwa and Zorinpui. The project is being carried out by the Indian contractor C&C Construction. The work is costing US$245.3 million. The deal was awarded in mid-2017 but construction work has been delayed until all the necessary approvals have been given.

The contract for the Swinoujscie Road Tunnel in Poland has been awarded to a consortium that comprises the contractors Astaldi and Ghella.

Thailand’s recent Songkran Festival period saw a worrying spike in road crashes and fatalities. There were 418 road deaths over the seven day festival period, held in April, an increase of 7% over the 390 fatalities recorded for the event in 2017. The Road Safety Centre's report said that the number of crashes during the seven day festival hit 3,724 for 2018, compared with 3,690 in 2017, while injuries grew to 3,897 in 2018 from 3,808 in 2017.

The delayed work to refurbish one of the tubes for the Elbe Tunnel in Hamburg has now commenced. Work to refurbish the other tube is set to commence shortly. This upgrade is required to improve the tunnel link, which carries a very heavy volume of traffic passing along the A1 Autobahn. This stretch of highway is amongst the busiest in Europe and carries a high percentage of truck traffic. The delay was due to construction activity being carried out on the A1 Hamburg Südost and the Süderelbbrücke bridge.

An innovative electric highway trial project is now being prepared in Germany. The work will see a section of the busy A5 Autobahn route being equipped with overhead wires, which will be used to power electric trucks

A new partnership has been agreed between Goldhofer and Trail King Industries, two of the leading players in the market for heavy equipment haulage. German firm Goldhofer and US company Trail King will now promote and support each other’s products both in the United States and around the world. The two firms say that working in partnership will allow them to provide improved customer support globally. Customers will also benefit from an expanded portfolio while continuing to rely on existing long term

A time extension has been offered to the consortium that will build Paraguay’s Ruta 2 and Ruta 7 highway projects. This extended period has been authorised by Paraguay’s Ministry of Public Works and Communications (MOPC). The highway contract is being handled by the Rutas del Este consortium, which is made up of the contractors Mota Engil, Ocho A and Sacyr. Originally the financing package for the highway deal was to have been in place by April 14th 2018. However the consortium’s deadline for the PPP

India’s Road Transport and Highways Ministry is working on plans for a new high speed road link connecting the capital, New Delhi, with the key economic and industrial centre, Mumbai. The route will form part of the country’s new highway network and is expected to cost in the order of US$15.3 billion to construct. In addition, another highway project has been proposed that will be linked to the planned New Delhi Mumbai route. The new inter-city highway will be tolled and will reduce travel times between New

Tunnel driving work is now recommencing on the new link that will connect Perth, Australia with Forrestfield Airfield. Work was halted for two months when first one and then the other TBM being used encountered unexpected geological problems. The geological issues have now been addressed and one of the TBMs is being restarted, with the second also expected to recommence tunnel driving work in a few weeks. In all, the project is costing US$1.4 billion (A$1.8 billion). The new link is expected to reduce

Only days after Croatia rejected initial complaints, contractors Astaldi, Ictas and Strabag said that they will submit new complaints over the Peljeski bridge winning bid. Croatian media report that Turkey's Ictas, Italy's Astaldi and the Austrian company Strabag are planning to submit a new complaint to the Croatian High Court against a decision by the state procurement authority DKOM to reject their previous complaints. At issue is the awarding of the Peljeski bridge and access roads project to the

Plans are being drawn up for a new road link that will connect Myanmar’s main deep-sea port of Dawei with neighbouring Thailand. The development of the new route is being approved by Thailand’s Neighbouring Countries Economic Development Cooperation Agency (Neda). The project is expected to cost US$144.2 million and the road will be around 100km long. A full finance package has yet to be finalised for the project but a series of loans are being sought. Once complete, the road will connect the port of