News

German company HUESKER, which specialises in geosynthetics for the construction industry and textiles for industrial and agricultural applications, is celebrating its 150th birthday this year. The business concept of the classical cotton weaving mill was originally founded by H & J Huesker & Co in December 1861. In 2010, the International Geosynthetics Society committee presented HUESKER with the IGS Award for the development of high-strength geosynthetic reinforcements from innovative raw materials.

Joanna Oliver, the Construction Equipment Association’s (CEA) Director of Global Programmes, has been awarded an MBE [Most Excellent Order of the British Empire] in the Queen’s Birthday Honours list. She is one of a select few recipients recognised for their services to industry, and is rewarded for over 16 years of promoting UK exports.

Construction work is due to start soon in south Germany on the upgrades to 41km of the A8 autobahn at a cost in the order of e305 million. Work will include widening the road to six lanes between Augsburg-West and Neu-Ulm. The project is being carried out under the public private partnership (PPP) model, and is due for completion in September, 2015.

The tender process to construct a €1.3 billion highway project in the Bosnian autonomous entity of Republika Srpska is underway and will be open until 2 September, 2011. Bosnia's Ministry of Transport has held talks with a total of five companies so far. The highway will run from Glamocani through Banja Luka and to the town of Mrkonjic.

The UK government has confirmed the funding to build a replacement for Northside Road Bridge in Workington, which was destroyed in the floods of November, 2009. Local Transport Minister Norman Baker said that the Department for Transport will provide £11.17 million (e13.25 million) towards the new permanent crossing of the River Derwent in County Cumbria. The council’s Cabinet last month approved Birse Civils, part of the Balfour Beatty Group, as the preferred contractor to build the new bridge.

A silver spade ceremony was held in June to mark the official start of construction at the new Wacker Neuson plant in Hörsching, Upper Austria. Light and compact equipment manufacturer Wacker Neuson is investing around e65 million (including purchasing and developing the site) in what will be “one of the largest, most modern plants for compact equipment in the world.” The first compact equipment should be rolling off the production line as early as the beginning of May 2012.

Astucia SolarLite road studs have been recognised as one of the top three safety projects in Poland. The company’s Polish partner, Lunaro, was alerted to the need for more efficient road safety measures, and assisted in the planning and deployment of studs on Road No 3 near Przybiernow, Western Pomerania.

Authorities in Malta are continuing to examine options with regard to a road link connecting to the neighbouring island of Gozo. A competition was put forward to design a new bridge link between Malta and Gozo by ITS Malta. However the authorities are now evaluating the feasibility of building a tunnel.

Case Construction Equipment UK will field a strong, four-man team at the final of the Case European Rodeo to be held at the company’s Customer Centre near Paris, France, later this year. UK operators attended north and south heats as more than 100 customers a day took part in the four Case roadshow events.

The regional authorities in the Spanish Andalucia region are looking to the PPP model to develop infrastructure projects. A total finance deal worth some €768 million should be raised using the PPP structure so as to pay for five projects, which includes three road contracts. However the region originally had plans for €2.6 billion worth of infrastructure projects. The PPP model is being seen as the best way to progress with much needed infrastructure work in Spain given the severe financial problems the co

Latest statistics show road fatalities fell in the European Union by 11% in 2010 compared with the previous year. Latvia, Estonia, Lithuania, Spain, Luxembourg, Sweden, France and Slovenia have all made reductions of more than 50% in the number of deaths on their roads since 2001, says the European Transport Safety Council (ETSC). The organisation’s 2011 PIN [Road Safety Performance Index] Awards went to Sweden and Lithuania recognising their particular efforts in reducing road deaths.

Drilling work on the Blanka road tunnel in Czech capital Prague has now been completed. The new tunnel will become part of the Prague ring road once it is open to traffic. Construction commenced in 2007 but the project has faced a series of problems, including three collapses. The original cost was estimated at nearly €870 million for the construction works, €172 million for technology and €65 million for survey work. However, due to the problems the link has suffered the project is expected to cost close t

According to the VDMA the introduction of the EU-Exhaust Emission Regulation Stage III B poses a challenge for construction machinery manufacturers. It says the expense is enormous; a great deal of investment and development capacity is necessary; for the buyers that means higher prices, and in some cases greater efficiency on the building site. VDMA (German Engineering Federation) sees tighter regulation as “counter-productive,” and while the manufacturers have still got their hands full with refitting a

The authorities in the Czech Republic are counting the cost of bungled planning for a series of infrastructure projects. The works will now have to source funds from the Czech Government following a ruling by the European Court of Auditors that the tender processes for the projects were flawed. The original plan was that the EU Operational Programme Transport would have paid for the works but instead, the Czech Government will finance the projects itself. However, only one project will have to be almost 100