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Transport Scotland has awarded Amey a six-year contract to maintain and improve the motorways and trunk roads in South East Scotland. The commission, which is valued at over €115.3 million (£90 million), is subject to up to two one-year extensions and will see Amey deliver engineering design and operational delivery services for more than 885km (550 miles) of road. Under the Scottish Trunk Roads Unit South East (STRU SE) contract Amey will be responsible for managing and maintaining routes through Central

Strabag consortium has won a tender for the construction of a 4.5km S7 dual carriageway section in the eastern part of Krakow, Poland. The investment will also include the construction of a bridge over the Vistula River. The gross value of the offer made by Strabag reached almost €127.93 million (PLN 529 million), which is less than the budget of the investor set at PLN 610.3 million. In total nine offers have been submitted in the tender. All bidders offered a ten-year guarantee and a 27-month deadline.

A further €821.07 million (CHF 1 billion) is to be spent on reducing traffic problems on Swiss roads, including the A4. The FORTA fund should be used to finance the expansion of the motorways between Meyrin and Vernier-Le Vengeron, Luterbach and Harkingen and Andelfingen and Winterthour. A further €32.83 million should be spent on work around Crissier, which already benefited from €98.51 million of the €1.14 billion allotted in the first phase of traffic jam reduction. The second €816.85 million phase is to

The Bahrain government is to purchase around 200 plots of private seafront land in order to build a new US$265.21 million (BHD 100 million) coastal highway. The highway will connect the Seef District and the new Northern Town, a town being built off the coast of Duraz. The town will feature a government housing development of 1,618 low-cost housing units and 367 mid-range units. The highway project will not affect the World Heritage Site status of Bahrain Fort. Work on the new coastal route will start by th

Bentley Systems is calling for submissions to the 2014 Be Inspired Awards program. The deadline for entries is July 10, 2014. The awards are selected by an independent jury of industry experts and identify innovations for design, engineering, construction, delivery and operation of better-performing, safer, and more resilient infrastructure. The 18 award categories cover every aspect of the built environment. All Bentley software users are invited to enter projects in the awards programme, no matter what ph

A UK academic claims that research shows higher prison sentences are unlikely to deter death by driving offences. University of Leicester professor Sally Kyd Cunningham suggests new laws from the UK Government could fail as a deterrent to crimes committed while driving. In the wake of the Government’s recent announcement of a comprehensive review of driving offences and penalties, an academic from the University of Leicester has argued that higher prison sentences could fail to act as a deterrent against de

Auction firm Ritchie Bros has scored a strong sales performance after a series of three heavy equipment auctions in Edmonton, Canada. In all, the firm sold over C$300 million worth of equipment, with this latest auction held recently accounting for C$104 million of machines. The company sold over 5,350 items of heavy equipment to customers from all over the world with the units for sale coming from 863 different sellers and strong prices being achieved. In all there were some 5,800 bidders from over 50 coun

The Liebherr Group achieved turnover of €8.963.6 billion in 2013 – down 1.4% (€126.6 million) on 2012. The group said the full business year figure was posted against a backdrop of “moderate” international economic progress, with 2013 also seeing €830 million invested by the group in production facilities and its sales and service network. The Liebherr Group’s global workforce also rose again last year by 4% (1,623) to 39,424. In the construction machinery and mining area, turnover in 2013 reached €5,630

This video shows Simex’s new VSE 40 screening bucket being put to work by two of the company’s Italian customers. The attachment is said by the firm to be unlike similar models on the market as it allows the user to change the output size of the material without having to perform complicated mechanical procedures. Thanks to an original patented solution, the VSE screening bucket lets the operator modify via hydraulic control the distance between the screening elements, and thus the output size between 0-15m

In Slovakia plans are being made for a new project that will become the country’s longest tunnel when it is complete. Salini Impregilo is the contractor heading the project. The work looks set to cost in the order of €410 million and the project is due for completion in late 2019 or early 2020. Although there was a lower priced bid for the project, this was excluded due to technical problems relating to the proposed tunnel exits. The Visnove Tunnel will measure some 7.7km long and will be constructed in the

According to the European Construction Industry Federation, FIEC, there is light at the end of the tunnel in terms of market activity. The FIEC estimates a decline of 2.3% in overall EU construction activity in 2013 but forecasts stabilisation of in 2014 with market gains of 0.1% expected overall. “There can be no growth without investment!” warned FIEC vice president Jacques Huillard, responsible for economic issues. He presented FIEC’s annual statistics prior to the FIEC’s Congress. “The policy of austeri

The final funding has been found for a new dual carriageway connection linking the city of Mombasa to its airport. The Transport Ministry has revealed that US$15 million is being provided for the work by Trademark East Africa, on top of the $24 million being provided by the Kenyan Government. The tender process for the project is now commencing and the size of the deal involved is being revealed shortly. The upgraded road will link Moi International Airport with Changamwe, which lies on the western outskirt

The Indian state of Odisha is to see a total of 2,370km of its national highways (NH) upgraded to four and six-lanes under Phases I to V of the National Highway Development Project. Phase-I of the project has already been completed, involving the four-laning of 520km of NH. Around 490km (Phase II) are still under construction for US$ 770.77 million (INR 45.7 billion), and are expected to be completed by March 2015. These include the four-lane Bhubaneswar-Puri, four-lane Sambalapur-Bargarh, four-lane Panikoi