News

The latest American Road & Transportation Builders Association (ARTBA) analysis of US Census Bureau data reveals a 6% decline in the real value of highway pavement work. This contrasts with investment in airport, rail, transit, port and waterway construction in the US. Contractors completed US$8.4 billion in pavement construction work between January and April 2013, compared to $8.9 billion during the same time period in 2012 according to the report. Bridge and tunnel work between January and April 2013 was

The International Road Federation (IRF) is planning a new seminar that will focus on delivering outcomes through the utilisation of performance-based maintenance. The Fall Edition of the Executive Seminar Series: Performance-Based Maintenance Contracting will be held from September 15th-25th, 2013. The seminar will feature an intensive programme of presentations and discussions about Sustainable Maintenance Programmes.

Nepal’s Ministry for Physical Infrastructure and Transport has inaugurated a programme for bridge upgrades and maintenance across the country. This is being funded by the World Bank while the programme will also benefit from new bridge management software developed by the department of roads. This software will be able to locate the type of bridge, location, date of completion, span, crossing, load capacity, condition and load restriction. The World Bank has provided a grant assistance of US$147.6 million f

Rob Wallis is to become the new CEO of the UK-based Transport Research Foundation and TRL. Wallis joins from BSI, where he was managing director, Europe, Middle East and Africa region, an international division of approximately 1,000 employees. Prior to BSI he held managing director and senior director roles leading transport-focused businesses at Hedra, EDS and LogicaCMG, having begun his career at the CAA. Taking over his new role on 15 July, Wallis will replace Dr Sue Sharland, who is stepping down as CE

Chinese company, Fujian Saibang Leasing, has bought the new Sandvik DH350 compact drill rig, the first machine to have been developed and manufactured at Sandvik’s Jiading R&D centre in China. Globally launched at bauma China in 2012, the company said that the DH350 is proving ideal for a variety of construction drilling projects. The new Sandvik DH350 is a diesel-powered, crawler-mounted, self-contained down-the-hole drilling rig, that has been designed for drilling with 3”, 4”, and 5” hammers in the 89–15

A Cement + Minerals road show to South America, organised by the German VDMA, is said to have been a success. The event was arranged by the Association on Construction Equipment and Building Material Machinery, part of VDMA, along with seven of its member companies. In 2012, Latin America represented 7.6% of all exports done by German manufacturers of mining machinery equalling €5.78 billion/US$7.6 billion). These markets ranked fifth among the biggest export countries following Russia, Australia, the USA,

Inframachineries is Sandvik Construction’s new distributor for the mobile crushing and screening product range for the Philippines. Inframachineries will supply a comprehensive range of Sandvik mobile equipment and provide full aftermarket care, spare parts and dedicated customer service. Sandvik says customers throughout the Philippines will now be able to benefit from even greater levels of support through Inframachineries.

The organisers of the BICES 2013 event due in China’s capital Beijing from October 15th–18th are confident the event will prove successful. The 12th Beijing International Construction Machinery Exhibition and Seminar (BICES 2013) will be held at the Beijing Jiuhua International Exhibition Center just outside the city. BICES 2013 is expected to achieve new break through: the scale is expected to reach 230,000㎡, the number of exhibitors is going to be over 1500. In addition, more domestic and international vi

NDS, the Slovak national motorway company, plans to spend US$2.21 billion (€1.7bn) between 2013 and 2016 on motorway construction projects in the Zilina region of Slovakia. Milan Gajdos, the firm’s managing director and chairman, said that post 2016 a further $1.04 billion (€800mn) will be invested in the region. Currently, tenders worth $1.82 billion (€1.4bn) for motorway projects in the region are already underway, including tenders for stretches of the D1 and D3 motorways. It is still not known whether t

An agreement on the Peace Bridge, among the busiest crossings between the United States and Canada, has been reached. The deal calls for the immediate implementation of several projects connected to the Bridge which runs from Buffalo, New York State to Fort Erie, Ontario. These include a pre-inspection project to have cargo trucks bound to the US inspected in Fort Erie to lessen pollution and congestion on the US part of the crossing, and a research project focusing on the feasibility of expanding the US pl

IL&FS Transportation Networks (ITNL) has formed a tie-up with Japanese company East Nippon Expressway Company (East Nippon) to jointly undertake highway projects in India through public private partnerships (PPP). Under the tie-up, the partners aim to leverage technology as well as financial assistance from Japan besides carrying out technical and pre-feasibility studies and other related works on potential road projects. ITNL is a subsidiary of infrastructure developer IL&FS.