News

Cause for concern comes from the US where the National Highway Transportation Safety Agency (NHTSA) has revealed an increase in road fatalities during 2012. The NHTSA’s statistical projection of traffic fatalities suggests that 34,080 people died in vehicle traffic crashes in 2012, an increase of about 5.3% over the 32,367 killed in 2011.

Car manufacturers General Motors and Honda are now working jointly on developing fuel cell powered vehicles. The two companies have established a long term partnership that will encompass bot the fuel cell system as well as storage solutions for the hydrogen fuel and also refuelling infrastructure.

Research carried out in Finland reveals that an innovative new gasification method can turn forestry waste into biofuel with less than €1/litre. The VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland says that lignocellulosic biomass can be processed using new technology developed in Finland to transfer of more than half the energy of wood raw waste into fuel.

A new bridge spanning the River Ntem will provide a link between Cameroon and Equatorial Guinea. The bridge will form part of the 159km Kribi-Campo-Bata road and its construction follows an agreement between the governments of the two neighbouring nations. Some 77km of the road is in Cameroon and 82km is in Equatorial Guinea. The entire road and bridge project is expected to boost trade and economic activity.

This video from International Pavement Management (IPMA) discusses hot in-place surface recycling job sites in the US state of Georgia. Presenter Blair Barnhardt talks to Brian Frix from Rockdale County and Mike Lehner from Cobb County DOT about their successes with their pavement management programmes.

The newly built US$522.81 million (CZK 10.45bn) D3 motorway section between Tabor and Veseli nad Luznici in the Czech Republic has officially opened. The partially EU funded 25km route was built by a consortium of four companies Eurovia CS, Strabag, Metrostav and Inzinierske Stavby. The motorway section includes 48 bridges, 277 construction objects and ten sound barriers.

Four road infrastructure projects under the Doha Expressway programme in Qatar will be designed and supervised by CH2M HILL Halcrow under terms of a contract awarded by the Qatari government.. The projects consist of two 10km, dual five-lane carriageways for the East-West Corridor, an 11km road for the Al Wakrah Bypass, and another 11km highway Al Wakrah Main Road. CH2M HILL Halcrow is a merger of US-based engineering and construction consultancy CH2M HILL and UK peer Halcrow Group.

Serbian Minister of Transport Milutin Mrkonjic has reported that so far two thirds of construction works of the country’s Corridor 10 motorway have been completed. He said that a total of US$5.86 billion (€4.50bn) of loans have been approved for infrastructure projects, out of which $4.3 billion have not been realised, as previously stated by the Minister of Finance, Mladan Dinkic. The minister said that the Corridor 10’s most difficult build sections were between Nis and Dimitrovgrad, which has three large

New data shows a continued improvement in road safety in Europe, with a reduction in fatalities in 2012 compared with the previous year. The information shows that there were 2,661 fewer road deaths in the EU during 2012 than in 2011. This shows countries are on track with the aim of lowering the fatality rate by half between 2010 and 2020. Over the first two years of the 2010-2020 target the EU nations reduced road deaths by 11%, 600 deaths short of the number that would have been needed to reach the EU ta

A new safety programme in Cyprus is helping improve the country’s record on motorcycle safety. Following the Bikesafe programme originally developed in the UK, the police in Cyprus are helping reduce the toll amongst the country’s riders by targeting issues such as helmet use as this video explains…

The latest American Road & Transportation Builders Association (ARTBA) analysis of US Census Bureau data reveals a 6% decline in the real value of highway pavement work. This contrasts with investment in airport, rail, transit, port and waterway construction in the US. Contractors completed US$8.4 billion in pavement construction work between January and April 2013, compared to $8.9 billion during the same time period in 2012 according to the report. Bridge and tunnel work between January and April 2013 was

The International Road Federation (IRF) is planning a new seminar that will focus on delivering outcomes through the utilisation of performance-based maintenance. The Fall Edition of the Executive Seminar Series: Performance-Based Maintenance Contracting will be held from September 15th-25th, 2013. The seminar will feature an intensive programme of presentations and discussions about Sustainable Maintenance Programmes.

Nepal’s Ministry for Physical Infrastructure and Transport has inaugurated a programme for bridge upgrades and maintenance across the country. This is being funded by the World Bank while the programme will also benefit from new bridge management software developed by the department of roads. This software will be able to locate the type of bridge, location, date of completion, span, crossing, load capacity, condition and load restriction. The World Bank has provided a grant assistance of US$147.6 million f

A senior Terex figure said the leading construction equipment manufacturer is hard at work targeting future “mineral wealth” led sales growth opportunities in Africa, Russia, Asia and Australia. Speaking during the recent Terex Truck Days event at the firm’s articulated and rigid dump truck manufacturing facility in Motherwell, Scotland, John Mlonek, commercial sales manager for Terex Construction, said, “With the downturn in Europe, lots of our efforts have gone more into markets like South Africa, which i