News

The World Bank is reducing its financing projects in Ukraine until 2016. The new cooperation strategy between the bank and the country's government follows a drop in financing through slow spending loans extended by the bank to the country in recent years. The bank will provide US$150million for the Second Project for Exports Development in 2012. And Ukraine can also receive $1billion in 2013-2014. However, both financing packages will depend on development of economic reforms in the country during the foll

Plans are in hand for infrastructure upgrades in Malaysia. The local government in Selangor State is to carry out a series of infrastructure projects, including the construction of three or four highways with a total investment of US$2.44 billion. Meanwhile a new 6km toll road will be built to link Marunda with Kalibaru terminal in Indonesia's Tanjung Priok. This will cost an estimated US$167 million and forms part of a plan to have a railway and toll road linking other major facilities with the terminal.

The National Highway Authority of India (NHAI) is inviting bidders for 15 projects worth US$4.08billion. The combined projects will widen 2,000km of India’s highways. Three of the 15 will involve the widening of narrow roads into six-lane highways, while roads will be widened to four lanes in 10 of the other projects. Contracts for the projects are expected to be awarded in 2012/2013 once NHAI invites financial bids from potential candidates. About 60 companies are expected to compete for them.

Mott MacDonald has been appointed design consultant for the proposed Raipur-Bilaspur national highway 200 in India. Part of the National Highways Development Programme Phase IV established by the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI), the new road will connect Raipur in Chhatttisgarh to Chandikohole in Orissa, passing through areas including Bilaspur, Raigarh and Jarsuguda. Costing US$244.2million, the 127km long road is primarily made up of four lanes, with 34km of the highway comprising six lanes. T

3M and Chesapeake Energy Corporation have announced an agreement to collaborate in designing, manufacturing and marketing a broad portfolio of compressed natural gas (CNG) tanks for use in all sectors of the United States transportation market. Currently, the fuel tank on a CNG vehicle is its most expensive single component. It is claimed that the new CNG tanks developed through the partnership will reduce costs while increasing performance. Less expensive tanks will enable greater market adoption of CNG as

Long An province in Vietnam will see US$2.77billion spent on constructing and improving its inner waterway and road infrastructure over the next eight years. The provincial peoples’ committee (PPC) revealed that the major capital project will include the construction of bridges and roads linking central areas and towns. The new roads will stretch around 400km and new dredge waterways will span 600km on the Chanh, Thu Thua, Bac Dong and Tra Cu canals by 2015. Small wharves and Long An Port will also be estab

Good weather conditions prompted an increase in driving speeds leading to more road deaths in Germany in 2011, according to the country’s federal statistics office. Road deaths across the country rose 9.4% last year to 3,991. Further federal statistics office figures show the number of people injured in road accidents also increased, by 5.5% to 391,000. However, the number of road accidents dropped by 2.8% to 2.3million.

Siemens has announced that Surrey County Council in the UK is continuing to upgrade urban traffic control (UTC) with modern digital communications equipment following the deployment of the company’s latest UTMC-compliant outstation transmission units (OTUs) at a further 25 analogue sites. Working closely with Surrey’s traffic engineers to commission the new Siemens technology, the full programme to upgrade all 100 UTC sites is planned for completion in the coming weeks.

Caterpillar delivered record-breaking sales and revenues of US$60.1 billion in 2011, an increase of 41% from $42.6 billion in 2010, with profit at $4.9 billion, an increase of 83% ffrom $2.7 billion in 2010. Fourth-quarter sales and revenues in 2011 were an all-time quarterly record at $17.2 billion, an increase of 35% compared with $12.8 billion in the fourth quarter of 2010. Fourth-quarter profit was $1.5 billion compared with $968 million in the fourth quarter of 2010.

EC Harris, the global built asset consultancy, has been appointed by the Ecomouv consortium to monitor construction progress, expenditure and testing on the new French Ecotaxe truck tolling system which is scheduled to be introduced across the country by mid-2013. The Ecotaxe scheme will see a levy imposed on all French and foreign heavy good vehicles (HGV) that travel along the 15,000km of national and departmental roads throughout France. Each HGV subject to the tax will have technology installed onboard

Dr Michael Milford from Queensland University of Technology's (QUT) Science and Engineering Faculty in Australia has revealed details of research that dispenses with GPS satellites and uses cameras instead to make road navigation a far cheaper and simpler task. "At the moment you need three satellites in order to get a decent GPS signal and even then it can take a minute or more to get a lock on your location," he said. "There are some places geographically, where you just can't get satellite signals and ev

Telvent GIT has been selected by the North East Texas Regional Mobility Authority (NET RMA) to integrate an electronic toll collection (ETC) system in northeast Texas. The company’s advanced SmartMobility Open Road Tolling technology, which integrates into the existing toll system, will be used to implement and manage the NET RMA ETC system. The ETC system provides drivers with the convenience of travelling at free-flow, highway speeds, for increased throughput, and decreased green house gas (GHG) emissions

Liebherr bosses have ensured the company continues to remain independent and family-run by transferring some of their shares in parent company Liebherr International AG to their children.