News

The Public Works Authority (ASHGAL) of Qatar has given Larsen & Toubro (L&T) a contract worth US$599.13 million (INR 36.55 billion) to design and build the Al Wakrah Bybass Road. Scheduled to take 32 months, the high profile project will involve building 11km of road with 10 lanes and four future lane sections with additional collectors/distributor roads, frontage roads and ramps. The new freeway will provide access to the existing and planned developments via five major interchanges comprising of 20 bri

Slovakia plans to use €4 billion of its €15.3 billion EU funding package for 2014-2020 on road projects. The projects include the construction of several new stretches of the D1 and D3 motorways, as well as repairs and modernisations of Class II and Class III roads. The government in cooperation with the regions are currently drafting a strategic plan for the development and maintenance of roads at a regional level.

Who’s a pretty boy then? Image courtesy of World Highways readers Dr John Bullas and Charlotte Phillips (Photo: Highways Agency)

As part of its ongoing commitment to BRAKE, the road safety charity, Eurovia (UK) has recently made a further donation of €5,270 (£4,401). For every health, safety and environmental near miss reported on an annual basis, we donate £1 to the charity. Richard Coteau, senior corporate fundraiser of Brake, was presented with the cheque by Dave Campbell, Eurovia health, safety and environment director on 6 March 2014 at the worksite of the £10 million A57 Worksop/Sheffield improvement scheme near Rotherham fol

Deputy Mayor of Moscow for Town-Planning Policy and Construction Marat Khusnullin says over 200km of roads and 60km of subway lines will be built in the city in the next three years. A total 46 transport facilities will also be constructed, the Deputy Mayor has confirmed.

Councillors in Zimbabwe’s capital Harare have approved final details of the council's joint venture agreement with South African company Neo Capital for major roads' maintenance and rehabilitation in the city. A special purpose vehicle (SPV) named Harare Roads Development Company will be established between Neo Capital and Harare. Neo Capital will own 49% of the SPV, while the remaining 51% will belong to Harare. The joint venture period is 30 years. A total of US$400 million will be provided by Neo Capit

Copenhagen’s municipal authorities are to tighten building contractors’ requirements to encourage them complete road repair works faster. Contractors in the Danish capital that exceed time limits will be fined, whereas contractors that finish work ahead of schedule will be rewarded. The new regulations will make it more expensive for the municipality to repair roads, but advocates say the move will pay off in the long run.

UK firm JCB is opting to move production of its compaction equipment range from its facility in Germany to facilities in India and the UK. Production of the VM compactors and the two larger VM tandem rollers will be moved to the firm’s factory in Pune. Meanwhile production of all walk-behind models and the two smaller VM tandem rollers is relocating to the JCB Attachments factory in Uttoxeter. And production of the 403 Wheeled Loading Shovel will be brought back to the JCB Utility Products factory in Cheadl

During the recent Conexpo event in Las Vegas, Kelly Majeskie, President of The LeeBoy Group, spoke about his expansion plans for the business “We’ve been working on a couple strategies for LeeBoy” said Majeskie, “an overseas growth strategy and a more focused approach to the US market. Like most businesses we saw a major downturn when the US housing market took the big hit in 2008/9.

In 2014 Zoomlion-owned Cifa plans to manufacture a further 15 of its innovative hybrid Energya 8 and 9 plug-in truck mixer prototypes to add to its two existing models. The globally renowned concrete equipment sector firm also aims to sell the first of these new plug-in truck mixer models next year. Among the new machines and equipment resulting from a €2 million-a-year R&D investment in Cifa and Zoomlion products over the last five years, the Energya 8 and 9 models, the latter of which was launched at bau

Topcon Positioning Group has announced the addition of two new mobile applications during Conexpo 2014. Available for download on the Apple App Store, Topcon Tierra™ and Sitelink3D mobile apps are designed to offer on-the-go remote connections to equipment and job sites. 
 
The Topcon Tierra mobile app lets customers login with their existing passwords and track their equipment fleets from an iPhone or iPad. "The Topcon Tierra app allows users to easily check on their fleets, fences, productivity reports

Topcon Positioning Group is applying its technology to haul trucks, the company announced on Wednesday. “Our objective has always been to automate a construction site as much as possible,” said Kris Maas, manager of machine control product marketing for Topcon. “We know we can’t, or at least shouldn’t, remotely operate any vehicle. But, we can and should do the next best thing—manage and track the whereabouts and payload of site material. That’s what HT-30 does.”

Construction testing equipment manufacturer Humboldt has the strongest forward order book ever, said general manager John Lamond at Conexpo. The firm relocated at the end of last year to a bigger manufacturing facility: a 6,970 sq m factory in Elgin, Illinois. “We needed to expand,” said Lamond. “It’s a bigger and better location for us as a growing business.”