News

Lane Construction, the US subsidiary of Italy’s Salini Impregilo Group, has won a US$346 million design-build contract for the Interstate I-440/US 1 in North Carolina. Lane will be making improvements to the Interstate I-440/US 1 Wake County from south of Walnut Street to north of Wade Avenue. Around 10.5km of the highway - referred to locally as the Raleigh Beltline - will be widened from four lanes to six lanes. The work involves replacing pavement and bridges and upgrading interchanges and is expected

Hitachi Construction Machinery is partnering with Kiesel Technologie Entwicklung (KTEG) to develop electric construction machinery for sale in Europe. Kiesel is one of Hitachi’s European distributors and the agreement will also include developing special application products for the European market. Hitachi Construction Machinery has previously developed electric construction machinery to help lower running costs and environmental impact. Previous electric machines from the company include small-medium si

Norway’s Road Administration has stopped investigations into a proposed bridge or tunnel spanning 10.5km of the Oslofjord between Moss and Horten, according to Norwegian media. The Ministry of Transport has ordered Veivesendet to cancel consultations amid the government’s growing concern over the cost of any fixed link across the narrows, around 65km south of the capital Oslo. The half-hour car-ferry crossing as part of National Highway 19 will continue as usual. Several thousand people and vehicles m

The completion date has been announced for sections of Vietnam’s key road project. The North-South Expressway project is being built in eight stretches with the work being handled under the PPP model. Vietnam’s transport ministry is aiming for sections of the route to be built by the second quarter of 2020. Funding worth US$5.09 billion has been secured for the project. The North-South Expressway forms a key part in Vietnam’s national road strategy. The plan also includes upgrading, improving and maintaini

To massive TBNMs for a road project in Melbourne, Australia have been named. The TBMs weigh 4,000tonnes each and will be called Vida and Bella, in honour of suffragette and social reformer Vida Goldstein, and the first woman to graduate from an Australian university, Bella Guerin. The machines will start work shortly on the West Gate Tunnel project. The new tunnel link will provide an alternative for drivers to the West Gate Bridge and will help reduce congestion and travel times for drivers.

Nicaragua has revealed plans for its road development work to be carried out in 2019. The Ministry of Transport and Infrastructure (MTI) has set a budget at US$168.3 million and the plan involves the construction of 210.5km of new road links. This is an increase over the 162km of new roads that MTI set as its plan for 2018. However the 2019 budget is lower than that set for 2018, so there have been questions as to how the target will be achieved.

Extensive road repairs are required in California’s Bay Area, according to a new report. Released by TRIP, the report reveals that the Bay Area is suffering from poor road conditions. It says that up to 71% of the roads in the San Francisco-Oakland area are dilapidated. Meanwhile 64% of the roads in the San Jose area are also in poor condition. The report says that the San Francisco-Oakland area had the highest share of poor roads for US cities with population figures of 500,000 or more. In addition the Eas

More road repairs are required in Costa Rica to improve the national network. A new report from Costa Rica’s Treasury Inspector's Office (CGR) criticises the country’s national road authority, Consejo Nacional de Vialidad (Conavi), for carrying out inadequate road maintenance and conservation works. According to CGR, road maintenance works carried out by Conavi scored just 64%. On a more positive note, the report said that around 77% of Costa Rica’s roads are 'in good functional and structural' condition.

Eurovia says that it has successfully paved a 1km stretch of a French motorway using 100% recycled asphalt pavement – a global first for RAP. Eurovia said that the “fully recycled road”, done in conjunction with its parent company VINCI Autoroutes, is part of a major motorway renovation project on the A10 between Pons and Saint-Aubin in southwest France. The road is the result of two years of research and a partnership with asphalt plant equipment maker Marini-Ermont of the Fayat group. Marini-Ermont

Spanish construction group Rover Alcisa, through its Polish division RoverPol, will rebuild the Lekno Junction in the city of Szczecin. The multi-level intersection deal covering road and rail works - worth nearly US$35 million - is part of a major downtown bypass project. Szczecin, near the Baltic Sea and Germany, has a population of around 400,000.

For its new publicity campaign, Volvo Construction Equipment has teamed up with film star hardman Dolph Lundgren to showcase its excavators’ endurance in a stunt-filled mini-movie entitled Pump It Up. In the tongue-in-cheek mini-movie Lundgren, whose credits include Rocky IV, Universal Soldier and The Expendables, plays an all-action drill instructor in an excavator boot camp determined to test the diggers to their limits. Excavators ranging from 1.5t to 95t are ordered to do press-ups, pull-ups, flip

The organisers of the bauma 2019 construction machinery exhibition in Germany believe that the event will break records. A record number of exhibitors, over 3,500 from 55 countries, have already booked space for the exhibition. Already the bauma 2019 event will have 100 more exhibitors than the bauma 2016 show and the organisers believe that the event will also beat the previous record of 600,000 attendees. The show is being organised by Messe Munchen and is being held in April 2019 at the Munich exhibition

The sixth Ibero-American Road Safety Congress was held in Spain’s capital Madrid recently, aiming to boost road safety in a range of countries. In all 300 experts from 15 countries attended the event, analysing solutions to achieve more sustainable roads and streets. Attendees included Peru’s minister of the interior, the Spanish minister of Public Works, the Director of the World Bank for Bolivia, Chile, Ecuador and Peru. There is a strong need for road safety improvements across Latin America. In 2017, 2

A highway widening project will be carried out on the route connecting Mumbai with Vadodara in India. A 23.4km stretch of the highway will be widened so that it features four lanes in either direction. A finance package worth US$ 132.5 million has been secured to help carry out the project and the work will be handled by IRB Infrastructure Developers (IRB Infra). In addition the National Highway Authority of India will also contribute to the project.