News

The Inaugural Iran Bitumen/Asphalt Forum 2016 - IrB 2016 - will be held in Tehran from 29–30 August. With the lifting of international sanctions, this has opened up vast opportunities in doing business in Iran. IrB 2016 will explore the dynamics in a post-sanctions environment and examine the outlook, challenges and emerging opportunities presented. It will cover key developments in Iran bitumen market and the implications on global and regional bitumen trade. As Iran is one of the biggest suppliers o

Work has started on 2.2km Mersey Gateway’s main bridge deck as the project enters its third year of construction. The new six-lane toll bridge will link the English towns of Runcorn and Widnes and teams will begin to connect the steel support cables to the deck and upper pylons this summer. Trinity, the project’s movable scaffolding system (MSS), has cast the first 250m of the north approach viaduct and a new MSS is on its way to Halton to build the south approach viaduct. The local road network is al

Taiwan’s National Expressway Engineering Bureau said it would terminate its contract with Kuo Teng Construction company because of issues over the construction schedule of Kinmen Bridge. Work on the bridge connecting the main island of Greater Kinmen and Lieyu, also known as Little Kinmen, began in 2013 after it had been a campaign promise in five presidential elections. The bureau recently said that work on the bridge was nearly 19% behind schedule and reportedly gave the company 30 days to bring the pro

Eight road repair projects are among 23 contracts that the Angolan government has awarded to Chinese infrastructure companies under a credit line from the government in Beijing. The contracts - the other deals are for water infrastructure work - have a total worth of US$550 million, according to Angolan media. All the projects are in the provinces of Bié, Bengo, Namibe, Huambo, Kwanza Sul, Kwanza Norte, Uige and Malanje. One of the contracts was awarded to China Railway 20 Bureau Group to repair the C

The president of Panama, Juan Carlos Varela, has given the green light to T.Y Lin International to start project managing construction of a fourth bridge over the Panama Canal. The US-based infrastructure engineering company won an international tender for the work likely to cost around US$17 million, according to local media. Pre-qualification has started for companies interested in participating on the billion-dollar project. The new bridge is one of three infrastructure projects within a five-ye

The European-based technology group for construction services, Strabag, has initiated and led the first successful refinancing of an Irish motorway public-private partnership (PPP) project. In a written statement, Strabag said that the N17/N18 project between Gort and Tuam “is benefiting from improved financial market conditions while still in the construction phase”. Refinancing was successfully achieved on 27 May. Total private sector investment in this project amounts to €400 million. Strabag said

Zoomlion has ended its multi-billion dollar bid to acquire Terex Corporation. In a statement to customers, Ken Lousberg, Terex Cranes president, said that discussions between the two construction equipment industry heavyweights over a near US$3.3 billion deal had been terminated. Lousberg said the recently announced sale of Terex Corporation’s Material Handling and Port Solutions business segment to Finland-based Konecranes for around $1.3 billion is proceeding as planned, subject to regulatory and Konecra

Zoomlion has ended its multi-billion dollar bid to acquire Terex Corporation. In a statement to customers, Ken Lousberg, Terex Cranes president, said that discussions between the two construction equipment industry heavyweights over a near US$3.3 billion deal had been terminated. Lousberg said the recently announced sale of Terex Corporation’s Material Handling and Port Solutions business segment to Finland-based Konecranes for around $1.3 billion is proceeding as planned, subject to regulatory and Konecra

Ethiopia is planning a series of road projects as part of its Growth & Transformation Plan. These road projects are worth close to US$128 million in total, with the plans being managed by the Ethiopian Roads Authority (ERA). Four construction companies have been awarded the contracts by the ERA. The Chinese contractor CGC Overseas Construction Group will rebuild the 60km Shambu-Backo link in a deal worth $45.7 million, providing the existing gravel road with a new asphalt surface. Local contractor Yemene Gi

The World Health Organisation has published a new report on road safety during 2015. Its global status report uses information from 180 countries and indicates that the total number of road traffic deaths has plateaued at 1.25 million/year worldwide. The annual global road fatality rate has remained roughly the same since 2007, a point worth noting considering growing vehicle numbers around the globe. Low income countries remain those of most concern for this report as in previous years. But some progress i

It’s not a new idea, the straddle bus. It dates back to the 1960s. But if a prototype bus in a pilot project in China is successful, highway engineers working on urban roads may have to throw out their design templates. Recent Chinese reports have said a prototype is being built in the city of Chengzou for a pilot project being set up on the streets of Qinhuangdao, a coastal city about 300km east of Beijing, by the end of this summer. The bus’s main body glides above the road surface at 60kph on a

Be careful where you park your car in Florence, Italy. Might be best to not leave your vehicle next to the River Arno. In this case, 20 drivers returned to their cars only to find them sitting in a 6.5m deep sinkhole next to the river. The ‘hole’ appeared after what media reports said was a water main burst that flooded the road’s substructure, dropping nearly 200m of pavement into rushing water from the ruptured pipe. Vehicles remained out of the river, thanks to a brick wall. Nobody was injured in the

A driver in Wales drove around for a day with an estimated 20,000 unwelcome passengers until the problem got to be too evident. The video shows the car of the 65-year-old grandmother, finally parked in the small town of Haverfordwest, literally buzzing with bees. Apparently, a queen bee got stuck on the vehicle and her community decided to follow the car and stick to it as well. It took two members of the Pembrokeshire Beekeepers' Association, a park ranger and some local people to coax the travelers