News

Construction costs are increasing for a key road tunnel in the German city of Stuttgart. The work on the Rosenstein road tunnel looks set to be some €40 million more expensive than was initially expected. As a result the 1.8km tunnel will now come with a price tag of over €270 million. The tunnel should be ready for traffic in 2020. Funding for the project is being provided jointly, with the German Government and the federal state of Baden-Württemberg providing some €112 million of the financing required.

MOBA and Volz Consulting are setting up a new joint venture aimed at process optimisation and documentation in asphalt road construction. The partners say that the core of the new business is the formation of a software system for construction process optimisation. This has been developed by Volz Consulting and is called BauProzessOptimierung ("construction process optimisation") – or BPO ASPHALT for short.

A methane-powered bus has set a speed record for a regular city bus of nearly 124km/h at a test track in the UK, according to media reports. The bus, from the southern city of Reading, was converted to run on compressed methane from cow manure and was painted black and white like a Friesian cow. Mechanics removed the bus’s engine governor that restricted the vehicle’s speed to 90km/h. The bus then broke the record on the banked high-speed circuit at Millbrook Proving Ground, near the city of Bedford.

Bridge construction has sometimes been called theatre, with many acts and players building up to a finale. There is no better place to watch good theatre than from a prestigious box seat. This is especially true for the new Tappen Zee Bridge that is taking shape across the Hudson River in the US state of New York. In this case the box seat is just that – a box that sits high atop the old bridge, and it is occupied by a pair of peregrine falcons and their three babies. The family can be seen on-line thanks

Plans are moving forward in Indonesia for the development of a major new tolled highway project. Jakarta Tollroad Development is at present working on purchasing the land required for a key section of the toll road. The new route will run from Sunter in North Jakarta to Semanan in West Jakarta. The plans call for the project to be completed before the Asian Games in 2018. The first phase of the project is for the 20.23km Semanan-Sunter section and the 9.44km long Sunter-Pulogebang stretch. The second phase

Austrian contractor STRABAG is heading the consortium carrying out a highway project in Romania. The project is to build the country’s A3 highway connecting Ungheni and Ogra. Work on this 10km section of highway will take 12 months to complete. STRABAG holds the majority stake in consortium handling the €70 million contract.

Vietnam’s new Ha Long-Van Don highway will cut travel times between Hanoi and the economic zone in Van Don and Ha Long city. The new 60km highway will also cut traffic on National Road 18 and the project is costing some US$650.4 million. The construction work will require 29 months to complete and the project is being handled under the build-operate-transfer model. The Phuong Thanh and Cong Thanh transport construction investment firms will carry out the work.

Four new motorways are to be built in Morocco following approval being given passed by the country’s government. The projects will cost a total of US$3.22 billion in all. The new routes include a motorway between Safi, Marrakesh and Béni-Mellal over a distance of 356-422km and costing from $1.35-1.56 billion. MAD 13bn and MAD 15bn. The other major connection is a motorway between Agadir and Guelmin, set to cost anywhere from $727 million- $1.77 billion, depending on the route and technical constraints, with

The British Police Federation calling for the blood alcohol limit to be lowered. This call has also been backed by the campaigning road safety charity, Brake as well as the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents (ROSPA). Evidence from Scotland where the drink driving limit was lowered during 2014 has shown a reduction in drink driving offences. This move would bring the UK into line with other European countries with regard to alcohol limits by reducing the level from the current 80mg/100ml of blood

A major new bridge project is planned for Myanmar.The US$168 million bridge will span the Yangon River connecting the town of Dala with the city of Yangon. Work on the Yangon-Dala Overbridge looks set to commence in 2015 and should take five years to complete.

A major highway project could boost connectivity in Australia. The country’s South Road upgrade would cost close to US$5.43 billion (A$7 billion) over the next 10 years. The proposal is to turn the South Road in Adelaide into a non-stop north-south corridor. To complete the work, another 34km of road needs to be developed. The strategy shows 10 different road projects need to be finished at a total $5.38 billion in today's money, and does not include two projects that have already received financing, namely

Rocky road warning signs by the roadside warn drivers of bumpy stretches ahead, but themselves post a possible hazard

A tough and durable new camera system is now available from AXIS. The firm’s P3905-RE is an addition to the range and like others in the AXIS P39-R Network Camera Series, is designed for onboard video surveillance in or on buses and other rugged environment vehicles. The P3905-RE Network Camera is designed to be mounted on the exterior of a vehicle, increasing safety onboard and to simplify incident investigations. For example, the camera can be used for rearview surveillance alongside the vehicle outer