News

A just released video shows the dramatic implosion of a Rio de Janeiro viaduct as part of the Brazilian city’s preparatory works for the 2016 Olympic Games. Fábio Bruno Construções (FBC), the company behind the blast, shot the seven-minute film in November 2013 to illustrate what happens behind the scenes on this kind of project. The film illustrates how FBC expertly used explosives to simply drop the viaduct down a level in a controlled and pre-determined manner.

The Conexpo-Con/Agg and IFPE 2014 exhibitions are rapidly building momentum as the shows prepare to open their doors in six weeks. Last week, the shows recorded their best week of registration ever and organisers’ say advance registration is tracking ahead of the last events. The shows are already record-breakers for exhibit space – more than 213,676m² indoors and outdoors for Conexpo and Con/Agg and 14,864m² for IFPE – making it easier for attendees to connect with exhibitors. Meanwhile, new education

The International Transport Forum (ITF) at the OECD (Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development) opened a new chapter in its long-standing cooperation with the corporate world after staging its first meeting on Monday 20 January 2014. Twelve multi-national companies from seven countries met in Paris to inaugurate the Forum's new Corporate Partnership Board (CPB). The CPB will serve as the ITF's mechanism for including expert knowledge from corporations in transport and related areas for policy a

Cement manufacturers are launching projects to install new cement works in Morocco despite poor market conditions. The CEO of Ciments du Maroc, Mohamed Chaibi, believes that improvements in current demand are temporary, while Dominique Drouet, chairman of the board of directors at Holcim is reprted as anticipating a 12% drop in activity in the cement industry at the end of 2013 and expecting the decline to continue in 2014. A cement works with a production capacity of 1 million tonnes costs an average

France and Sweden are the most adept car-sharing nations, according to an Ipsos study. Following the research involving 10,500 people in 12 countries, the most adept car-sharing populations are the Swedes (21%), the French (21%) and the Germans (20%). For Italians, Spaniards, Americans, Canadians and Australians, the rate of car-sharers is 13-15%. By contrast, only 7% of the British, 3% of Norwegians and 1% of the Japanese practise car-sharing. The Ipsos study also shows that car-sharing is especially attr

No Parking - a driver in East Africa had a notion to leave his car rather too close to his house - image courtesy of World Highways reader Francis Gicheru

The Swiss Government may extend the use of flexible speed limits, which apply only at certain times, on motorways. In future flexible speed limits could affect 450kms of the country’s motorway network, up from 170kms now. The Government believes that this would lead to a better use of road capacities. Studies have shown that when people drive more slowly they leave smaller gaps between their vehicles and the ones in front. This improves efficiency. According to current plans, the maximum speed will be redu

A Portuguese contractor is now commencing work on a new highway in Venezuela. The US$4.76 billion project is being handled by contractor Teixeira Duarte. The highway work is for a new link from la Guaira to capital Caracas. The Caracas–La Guaira highway connects capital Caracas, to the port city of La Guaira, capital of Vargas state, as well as Simón Bolívar International Airport. The coastal link has had some technical issues and new sections have had to be constructed.

Two Chinese construction firms are keen to build Bulgaria’s Cherno More highway. The highway runs close to the country’s Black Sea Coast and will connect the cities of Varna and Burgas when it is complete. The project is just one of several in Central and Eastern Europe that will receive a portion of the €10 billion cooperation credit line proposed by China for the region. The 103km Cherno More highway will be one section of the Pan-European Corridor VIII and will connect with the Hemus highway at Varna and

The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) says it has provided strong support to emerging economies in 2013. Much of this investment has been into transportation infrastructure, which the EBRD sees as being crucial for development and to help emerge economies into growth. Total investments for the year across all of the regions where the EBRD is active amounted to €8.5 billion, according to preliminary estimates, compared with financing of €8.9 billion the previous year. These investments

New data shows a fall in road deaths in both Lithuania and Sweden. The official data reveals that 24 people were killed on Swedish roads in December 2013, according to preliminary figures from the Swedish Transport Agency (Transportstyrelsen). This compares with 26 killed in December 2012. Overall during 2013, 264 people were killed in road traffic crashes in Sweden, while 2,691 were seriously injured. This is the lowest number of fatalities on Swedish roads since 1944. Meanwhile 258 people were killed in r