News

In the Czech Republic the road authorities are looking to address quality issues that have caused problems on the country’s roads and highways. The Czech Roads and Motorways Directorate (RSD) plans to check the quality of highways using vehicle-mounted scanning laser technology. This will allow RSD to launch repairs before potholes are formed. It is estimated that costs of the repairs will be cut by 30%. RSD tried a similar method of scanning in 2006 but the project was suspended because of a lack of fundin

Riga International Airport in Latvia is seeing growth in aircraft numbers and passengers, prompting a need for investment and upgrades.

A new southern bypass is planned for Yekaterinburg in the Ural Mountains area of Russia at an estimated cost of up to US$721.5 million. When complete, the bypass will connect the existing Chelyabinsk and Perm Highways. The state-owned road company Avtodor will work with the local government for the Sverdlovsk Region to finalise the details of the company building the link.

The Mongolian Government intends to boost investment in the country’s road network, part of a move to improve access in major towns and cities as well as connect outlying areas. With development of Mongolia’s mineral resources set to expand, new road links will be crucial to its economic future. The government has given approval for the construction of bridges and roads. This also includes repairing 35km of roads and building 25km of paved roads will be built in capital Ulaanbaatar.

Controversy still surrounds a key road project in Bolivia. Local communities within the TIPNIS nature reserve are once again protesting against the project to build a new road, the ninth such march carried out so far. In all 64 communities in the TIPNIS reserve are being consulted on the construction of the second stretch of the Villa Tunari-San Ignacio de Moxos road, which is at the centre of the protests. The road is planned to be built through part of the reserve, although the authorities say the link wi

Delays are expected for the project to build a new tunnel connecting Denmark with Germany. Femern, the firm managing the 19km Fehmarnbelt tunnel project from Denmark to Germany, has said that the current time plan is too ambitious. Femern believes that it will be 2015 rather than 2014 before work will commence. The tunnel would then open in 2012.

The strong road construction market in Morocco is helping boost the quarrying market in the country substantially. One such operation exists near the town of Ben Slimane, situated north of Casablanca. Agregat Oued Cherrat (AOC) owns a 65ha quarry, one of the largest of the 14 in the region and when the firm decided to buy new excavators, it also opted to buy Hitachi machines. AOC placed an order for one ZX330-3, with the second delivered three months later and the company now has three ZX330-3s, with a four

A novel use of a scrap shear has helped safety upgrades for the A14 highway linking the Italian cities of Bari and Naples. A Promove SC2200 scrap shear has been used to cut and remove old steel guard-rail on the highway.

Italian firm Marcegaglia has developed a new range of steel road safety barriers that is said to be versatile and cost effective. The units meet containment levels N2 to H4 and can be specified for different options in terms of working width levels (W). The line-up includes a dedicated system for motorcyclist protection designed to be fitted to all existing guardrails, a new P4 energy absorbing terminal system for barriers and a renewed range of steel New Jersey barriers, with optional integrated noise prot

When the main commuter route into Cardiff, the Welsh capital, began to suffer from acute deformation, the Vale of Glamorgan Council required a durable and faster alternative to hot rolled asphalt to ensure minimum disruption for local road users.

The high sophistication of GPS machine control systems has resulted in a fast pace of technological advancement. The three major players in the machine control sector, Leica Geosystems, Topcon and Trimble have all made major gains in recent years. The sophistication of the latest systems can combine satellite position data from the GPS and GLONASS networks with information from total stations to provide precise, high speed machine operation. Further more the firms have also prepared themselves for the intro

A new Caterpillar grade control system can be installed at the factory to certain Tier 4 Interim/ Stage IIIB emission compliant dozers, graders, scrapers and excavators. The technology improves operator efficiency and equipment performance while reducing the overall cost of a machine guidance system on site.

Vietnam's new highway projects Key highway projects are being planned in Vietnam including the Ninh Binh-Thanh Hoa Expressway, which will run for 127km and is expected to cost US$1.6 billion to construct.

Caterpillar plans to open a new manufacturing facility in Xuzhou, Jiangsu Province, China, to produce undercarriage components and track assemblies, which are utilised on Cat hydraulic excavators.