News

The tunnel project to connect northern Poland’s Uznam and Wolin islands is now getting the go-ahead.

A special course being held at Newcastle University in the UK is intended to help road construction professionals with knowledge on asphalt road paving. The course is being managed by Roger N Bird, Senior Lecturer in Highway Engineering at Newcastle University. The course will run from the 3rd September to the 7th September 2018 at the university. This course is being run by Newcastle University’s Transport Operations Research Group.

Road widening on the Tullamarine Freeway in the Australian city of Melbourne is helping to cut congestion. The US$962 million (A$1.3 billion) project is nearly complete, but the sections finished already are now having a positive benefit for traffic flow. This has reduced journey times to and from the city’s main airport, with further benefits expected once the work on the route is completed in August 2018.

The Technical Standards Development and Application Demonstration Base of Graphene-Modified Lubricant, was launched at LiuGong’s Global R&D Centre in Liuzhou. Co-built by the China Innovation Alliance of the Graphene Industry and Guangxi Liugong Machinery, it marks the first base in China that concentrates on the transformation of graphene’s scientific research into real world applications. The partnership also includes building a joint laboratory and undertaking independent test tasks from other companies

New cross-border road connections are being planned between South Korea and North Korea. The two governments have set up a joint study group to discuss new road links across the border as well as upgrades and improvements to key roads in North Korea. One road link being prioritised for improvement works is the Musan to Kaesong route. Upgrading this route would boost transport between South Korea and China, as well as between South Korea’s capital Seoul and the North Korean capital, Pyongyang.

A road widening project worth US$134.3 million is now going ahead in Ecuador. The road connecting Aloag with Santo Domingo is being improved along a 100km stretch, widening the route so that it will feature two lanes in either direction instead of the single lane in either direction at present. This will boost the transport connection between Pichincha Province and Santo Domingo de los Tsachilas Province. The contract was originally awarded in 2015 but stalled in 2017 following a disagreement over tolling.

Financing now looks to be secured for two major infrastructure projects in Bangladesh. The US$300 million Tamabil to Sylhet highway looks likely to receive a funding package from the Asian Infrastructure Development Bank (AIIB) in China. The feasibility study for the Shambhuganj Bridge also looks likely to receive funding from the AIIB.

Newly available data from the Insurance Institute for Highway Studies (IIHS) shows the most dangerous days for drivers on US roads. The research studied fatal crashes that occurred between 1998 and 2014, revealing that summer and early Autumn have the highest rates of fatal road crashes. The risk of crashing is higher at the weekend than during the working week, with the 3pm to 7pm time slot having a particularly high risk of road fatalities. Most dangerous of all are New Year’s Day and the US Independence

Dutch construction company Heijmans has been awarded the final contract for the A1 motorway project between Apeldoorn and Azelo in the Netherlands. The €127 million contract will see the widening of 28km of motorway between Twello and Deventer to eight lanes and the road between Deventer-Oost and Rijssen widened to six lanes. Works is expected to start in spring 2019 for completion in the autumn 2020.

Construction will commence in 2019 for a new bypass stretch around Krasnodar in Russia. The project is for the western bypass for Krasnodar (South), which will link the route from Krasnodar to Temryuk with the M-4 Don Federal highway. The new road stretch provides a key link for the new highway and bridge route across the Kerch Strait to connect with the Crimean Peninsula. The bypass section is designed to carry up to 30,000 vehicles/day.

New Zealand is increasing its budget for road safety measures. Included in the plan for the 2018/2019 period will be a series of upgrades to noted danger spots on local roads as well as improving intersections. The budget will now be US$2.76 billion (NZ$4 billion), an increase from the $2.48 billion (NZ$3.6 billion) for the 2017/2018 period.

Air quality specialist EarthSense is working with Oxfordshire County Council in England and connected vehicle company Tantalum to understand road traffic’s impact on air quality. Council fleet vehicles are being fitted with EarthSense’s Zephyr air quality measuring sensors that give real-time data on vehicle emissions and air quality along the route. The data collected by EarthSense will be used to coordinate traffic light control in an attempt to mitigate road congestion and, therefore, air pollution.