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Around 17 million vehicles in Turkey could be fitted with electronic licence plates, under a proposed draft law. The move would see the addition of a cryptographic chip on both licence plates, and a barcoded sticker on the vehicle's windscreen. The Electronic Vehicle Identification and Tracking System will depend on identification with radio frequencies and will be integrated into CCTV and motorway cameras. The initiative aims to reduce the number of traffic breaches while providing support in the pursuit o

A land dispute that has stalled the completion of the D11 motorway in the Czech Republic for more than 17 years is reportedly nearing its end. The Czech road management firm RSD has applied for planning permission to build the D11 between Prague and Hradec Kralove omitting the disputed land. But it’s reported that the Transport Ministry is looking to come to an agreement with the owner of the last outstanding bit of land on the originally proposed D11 route, which will allow the preferred route to be comple

Danilo Medina, president of the Dominican Republic, says the Cibao-Sur highway connecting the provinces of Santiago and San Juan is a high priority for his administration.

Taiwan is to benefit from major investment worth close to US$744 million in a highway construction project. The National Expressway Engineering Bureau of Taiwan is planning a freeway that will provide a new link between Sinbin Expressway and Sun Yat-Sen Freeway, which is also known as Freeway No 1. A report on the project will be submitted to the Ministry of Transportation and Communications of Taiwan by the bureau on the project assessment by June 2013. The planned freeway named as Branch Line of Freeway N

Honda has developed processes that allow it to recycle the rare-earth minerals from nickel-hydrogen batteries. This is a significant step as the ability to recycle materials from hybrid vehicle batteries will help reduce production costs with the benefit of lowering the overall cost of such vehicles and also address concerns over supplies of the rare-earths. This step will also address some of the criticisms of the environmental factors with regard to hybrid vehicles batteries, due to the previous inability

A major new highway project that will improve transport links to Dallas, Texas, has been won by a consortium. The US$1.37 billion project will be handled by a consortium led by Cintra Infraestructuras and also including Dallas Police and Fire Pension System and French fund, Meridiam Infrastructure. The Texas Transport Department awarded the contract, which is for the design, construction, financing, operation and maintenance of the North Tarrant Express expansion project. The contract is valid for 43 years

The latest data available from France reveals a continuing reduction in road safety fatalities. The Ministry of the Interior has produced figures showing that road fatalities dropped 8% to 3,645 in 2012, when compared with 2011. Notable reductions were seen in deaths of motorcyclists, down 14.5% and car drivers, down 8.6%. However deaths of cyclists bucked the overall improving trend for French road safety by rising 10%, according to the French Federation of Bicycle Users. Further analysis of the crash data

Consultant Parsons Brinckerhoff is supporting Cornwall Council in its bid to secure central government funding for a major highways scheme on the A30 near Bodmin. Funding for the scheme was announced at the end of 2012 in the Chancellor’s Autumn statement. The work will involve widening a 4.2km route between Temple and Higher Carblake to dual carriageway. The A30 is the main highway connecting Cornwall to the rest of the UK, and is critical to the local economy. The single carriageway section at Temple, loc

Strong interest from a wide array of contractors has been shown in the project to construct the Chacao Bridge in Chile. In all some 47 sets of terms and conditions have been sold in the pre-qualification process for the tender to design and construct the Chacao Bridge. When complete the bridge will link Chiloe Island with the mainland of Chile, in the Los Lagos region. Chile’s Ministry for Public Works is now evaluating the companies/consortia that meet the requirements to build the bridge. The contract wil

Despite the 2012 passage of the US federal surface transportation law, known as MAP-21, the real value of highway and bridge contract awards over the last 12 months was down 3% compared the previous 12 month period. This is according to the latest analysis of McGraw-Hill Dodge data by the American Road & Transportation Builders Association (ARTBA). Taking into account changes in wages, materials and inflation, state and local governments awarded US$54.3 billion in real highway and bridge contract awards bet

From 15 March 2013, French traffic police in 13 départements will be using new-generation radar speed cameras. The cameras will be fitted to unmarked vehicles in a bid to catch rogue drivers breaking the speed limit. Said to be designed to pass among vehicles unnoticed, they will photograph the offending vehicles on the move and without attracting attention with a flash. The new radars are set to be phased in to replace the old ones at a rate of 100 per year, reaching 300 vehicles by 2016. Road safety body