News

Balfour Beatty has been awarded a €54.01 million (£43.9 million) contract to design and build the Highways Agency A1 Coal House to Metro Centre improvement scheme in Gateshead, north-east England. The project will include the introduction of new parallel link roads between the Lobley Hill and Gateshead Quay (A184) junctions and an increase in lane capacity on the A1 main line from two to three lanes in each direction from the Metro Centre to Coal House junction, a distance of 6.44kms.

The International Transport Forum’s (ITF) 2014 Summit under the title ‘Transport for a Changing World’ attracted the largest participation to date for an ITF Summit, organisers have revealed. More than 1,100 participants from 72 countries attended the prestigious event held in Leipzig, Germany in the last week of May. A total of 53 countries were represented with national delegations, of which 32 were headed by their minister or vice minister. During the event, more than 130 official bilateral meetings hel

In Romania the national roads authority, CNADNR, plans to have feasibility studies carried out for four new highway sections. In all the work would require the construction of 430km of highways.

Construction work on a new bridge connecting Brazil and Paraguay has suffered a further delay. The 760m suspension bridge itself is expected to cost in the order of US$102 million while the building of link roads and customs/immigration facilities bring the project total to some $170 million, according to a report by Business News Americas. Contractor Empresa Sul Americana de Montagens (EMSA) was originally thought to be the front runner for the project following its lowest cost bid of $101.78 million for t

In Kenya a major road building programme has been announced. The Kenyan Government has unveiled plans to construct some 10,000km of roads. The work will be carried out in three phases over a period of five years. The first phase will involve building some 2,000km of roads, with this work being carried out from 2014-2015. The second phase will be substantially larger with a target of 5,000km of new roads being built in the 2015-2016 period. For this second phase, 20% of the roads will be new highways while 8

Leica Geosystems’ CEO and president Jürgen Dold has highlighted to HxGN 2014 Live delegates how dynamic geospatial systems are creating more effective and safer workflows on road construction sites and in mining.

Hexagon president and CEO Ola Rollén stressed how individual users of exciting information technology innovation held the key to successfully confronting growing global challenges during his keynote speech titled ‘The Disruptive Power of Transformation’ which officially opened HxGN Live 2014.

In the Polish district of Bydgoszcz and Torun, police operations employ motorcycle patrols for traffic duties. Police motorcycles are used as they provide mobility where there is a lot of traffic, as police cars are less able to respond quickly. Motorcycle patrols are used to monitor the traffic on the road and perform general security tasks.

Work is due to start on a new bridge connecting Botswana with neighbouring Zambia. The Kazungula Bridge is expected to cost some US$259 million. The new link will replace the ferry service operating at present between Botswana and Zambia. This project is being handled jointly by the authorities in both Botswana and Zambia. The bridge construction is being financed by Japanese International Corporation Agency (JICA) and the African Development Bank (AfDB).

Plans are in hand for a new bridge spanning the Ob River in the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Area. This area forms part of the Russian Federation within the Tyumen Region, and is a part of Ural Federal District. At this stage the project looks likely to be carried out under the PPP model, with construction due to be complete by 2017.

Volvo Construction Equipment has now finalised its acquisition of the hauler business from Terex. The purchase consideration amounted to US$160 million on a cash and debt-free basis. The deal includes the main production facility in Motherwell, Scotland and two product ranges that offer both rigid and articulated haulers. It also includes the distribution of haulers in the US as well as a 25.2% holding in Inner Mongolia North Hauler Joint Stock Co (NHL), which manufactures and sells rigid haulers under the

The Secretary General of the World Road Association-PIARC has stressed the need for urgent unified action to maintain international road infrastructure. Jean-François Corté, whose association unites the road administrations of 120 governments and has members, individuals, companies, authorities and organisations in over 140 countries, spoke ahead of the keenly awaited PPRS Paris 2015 Congress 22-25 February 2015, which he is chairing. Emphasising the importance of quality road infrastructure and the need