News

UK drivers using mobile phones will face a police crackdown, after it emerged that 575,000 were prosecuted for using a handset whilst driving or being distracted in some other way at the wheel. In 2012, 548 casualties occurred as a result of drivers talking on the phone, with 17 fatalities. Nearly a quarter of fatalities were due to drivers being distracted. The Association of Chief Police Officers' head of roads policing Suzette Davenport said that some motorists are placing themselves and others in dang

A consortium led by the European construction group Strabag has signed the €178 million contract to build the 10.4km long section of the R2 expressway between Pstruša and Kriván in Slovakia. The R2 expressway runs through the valley of the Slatina River in central Slovakia and links the cities of Pstruša and Kriván. “After years of restraint in public-sector expenditures, the Slovak construction industry is again beginning to recover. We are bidding for several large contracts that are currently in the t

Major Polish transport projects connected to the TEN-T transport network and the Connecting Europe programme are to receive €4 billion of European Union funding. The S3 road from Nowa Sol to Hradec Kralove is among the Polish TEN-T road project works benefiting from the new EU fund. As part of the Connecting Europe Scheme, the €4 billion EU investment will also cover works on two major border road schemes: the S69 road from Bielsko-Biala, and the S61 from Augustow.

Wiener Linien, a public transport operator in Vienna, Austria, is to carry out a research project in cooperation with SLR Engineering and the Austrian Institute of Technology aimed at stopping parked cars hindering public transport services. Around 4,000 wrongly parked cars are said to have caused delays of between five minutes and 40 minutes on bus and tram services in Vienna in 2012. The research project, which is to be funded by the transport ministry's IV2Splus intelligent traffic systems and service

The transport corridor created by the Transistmico project, linking the port of Coatzacoalcos (Veracruz) with Salina Cruz (Oaxaca) in Mexico, should be operational within three years if US$2 billion of investment is secured. Representatives from the API port authority in Coatzacoalcos said that the conditions to develop this scheme are ideal, whilst technical studies will be developed in the short term.

The International Transport Forum (ITF) at the OECD, an intergovernmental organisation for the transport sector with 54 member countries, is calling for applications for a new award. The Promising Transport Innovation Award will recognise an innovation with the potential to significantly improve the transport industry. The innovation can be based on technological change, operational change, organisational change or a combination of these.

Martin Weissburg has been appointed new president of Volvo Construction Equipment. The 51-year-old is currently president of the Volvo Group’s customer finance company, Volvo Financial Services (VFS), and a member of the Group executive team. He will assume his new position on January 1, 2014, replacing Pat Olney. Weissburg has been the President of VFS since 2010, and prior to that served as president of Volvo Financial Services Americas from 2005 to 2010. Within his position at VFS, Weissburg has worked

The Road Safety Markings Association (RSMA) this week held its 16th and largest annual conference at Eastwood Hall in Nottingham, England. Under the title ‘Roadmarking 2013 Safety Through Innovation’, the event on 13-14 November included a host of presentations from leading transport and specific road marking industry figures based in the UK and Europe dealing with technological and practical innovations relating to road marking-led road safety. Jenny Moten, divisional director for Network Services at th

Guatemala is to negotiate a loan of US$400 million with the Central American Bank for Economic Integration (CABEI) to develop rural roads. The loan will be on top of loans of $200 million taken from the World Bank and of $237 million taken from the IADB for the same purpose. The nation’s government says that with $150 million alone it could also build nearly 500kms of rural roads. The authorities would also like to replace some of existing bridges. Between 60 and 70 temporary bridges are earmarked to be re

Vietnam received around US$2.07 trillion (PHP90 trillion) between 2011 and 2013 from private investors for major transport infrastructure projects, according to the country’s Ministry of Transport. Among the contracts awarded to private investors during 2011-2013 is the expansion of National Highway No 1 that is to be carried out under a build-operate-transfer (BOT) basis with an investment, while others are awarded as public-private partnership (PPP) or build and transfer (BT) projects.

Delcan, the Canadian multi-disciplinary engineering, planning, management and technology firm, has won the Global Road Achievement Award (GRAA) for Quality Management from the International Road Federation (IRF) for the fourth year in a row. The award, which is shared with the Ontario Ministry of Transportation and the 407ETR Concession Company, recognises Delcan’s significant contribution to meeting quality standards. As the largest highway concession project in Canada, Highway 407ETR in Toronto, Ontari

The Chinese Exim Bank is providing much of the funding for two highway projects in Macedonia. The construction work will be carried out by a Chinese contractor, which has signed a deal with the Macedonian Government. The Chinese Sinohydro Corporation will build two stretches of highway linking Kicevo-Ohrid and Miladinovci-Stip. These will measure 56.7km and 53km long, respectively. Some 90% of the construction costs will come from the Macedonian Government, with this €580 million being provided by the loan

A new development looks set to offer an efficient alternative to lithium ion batteries for use in electric vehicles (EVs). At present the current generation of EVs feature lithium-ion batteries to store energy. However the performance of the lithium ion batteries has been criticised, particularly with regard to the recharge time required as this is considerably longer than the time needed to refuel a combustion engine-powered vehicle. While faster charging technologies are available for lithium ion batterie

Work is starting in Nepal on a new tunnel project worth some US$347 million. The new tunnel forms part of the 58km route between Hetauda and Kathmandu. The project developer is Nepal Purbadhar Bikas (NPBCL) and the tunnel is being built at Bhimphedi in Makwanpur. The new route will reduce the journey time between Hetauda and Kathmandu from six hours at present to just one hour when the tunnel opens to traffic in December 2016. Once the new route is open it is also expected to improve traffic safety as the e