News

Serbia’s Ministry of Construction, Transport and Infrastructure says that the new Zemun-Borca Bridge will open by 20th December 2014. The Zemum Bridge project will be complete within the planned timeframe, with this work including the access roads. The structure spans the Danube River and will now be named the Pupinov Bridge, after the Serbian scientist Mihajlo Pupin following a decision by the City Board of Belgrade. Much of the work has been carried out by the Chinese contractor; The Second Harbor Enginee

The Algerian Ministry for Public Works plans for tolling to commence on the East-West Highway before the end of 2015. The charges will be linked to the maintenance and management costs of the link. A study is underway providing the necessary information required to outline the concession package. Meanwhile the package for the 84km section connecting Annaba with the Tunisian border via the El-Tarf province is being allocated to two national groupings. Three firms are carrying out necessary repairs to secti

Morocco’s Ministry for Infrastructure and Transport is developing a new national road plan. The first stage is to carry out a study into the country’s transport needs. This will be an extension of the 2035 road plan. At present, Morocco has 51,000km of roads, including 41,431km of surfaced roads and 727km of expressways. However there is concern that the country’s road network is not adequate for Morocco’s needs and that government funding will be insufficient to carry out the work required. The Ministry fo

European skiers may be praying for snow but city dwellers and highway users likely want the white stuff at bay for as long as possible. To help drivers be ready for the inevitable snow, the UK’s Institute of Advanced Motorists (IAM) has launched its national winter campaign Wheels in Winter well ahead of 21 December, the official first day of winter. London’s winters can be milder than for many other major northern European cities, such as Paris, Warsaw and Berlin. But the UK capital’s rainy weather with t

Plans are well in hand for the INTERMAT 2015 construction equipment exhibition, being held in Paris in April. The organisers say that the 2015 edition promises to be a great success, thanks to a high level of creativity and exceptional events to promote the building materials and machinery industry, and the companies that use them. One of the new features of this 2015 edition is World of Concrete Europe (WOC Europe), bringing together the entire concrete industry and its full range of products. Also, the IN

Kazakhstan is increasing the budget allotted for road repairs in the west of the country. The country’s government plans to allot some US$110 million (ZT 20 billion) for road repairs in West Kazakhstan. This sum will be used to fund repairs from 2014 until 2016.

The Ugandan Government is working to improve the country’s infrastructure, with new links planned as well as a new project tackling asset management. Fugro is leading a team on a pioneering project to build a pavement and asset management system for the road network of Kampala in Uganda as part of this focus on infrastructure. The company is working with international asset management specialists from TRL and local Ugandan mapping and GIS specialist Aerophoto Systems Engineering on behalf of the client, Kam

The 6th Eurasphalt & Eurobitume Congress, which is being organised by EAPA & Eurobitume in Prague in the Czech Republic on June 1 to 3 2016, has put out a call for papers. Speakers and authors should submit their abstracts online say the Eurasphalt & Eurobitume Congress 2016 organisers and all papers submitted will receive DOI (Digital Object Identifier) indexation. The organisers say that they “recognise the trend towards online availability of publications and it is the intention to index the proceeding