Products

Thieves in Turkey recently stole a bridge, which is then thought to have been cut up for scrap. The 25m long bridge weighed 22tonnes and was located close to a small village in Turkey’s western province of Kocaeli. When villagers realised the bridge had disappeared they called police who quickly ascertained that the structure had been cut to piece and hauled away for scrap. This follows a similar incident in India when a steel bridge was stolen by enterprising thieves, who convinced locals with forged docum

From New Zealand comes the news that three dogs have been taught to drive a car. The dogs came from an animal shelter and were taught to drive so as to highlight their intelligence. The vehicle used had a number of special features to allow the dogs to steer with their paws.

As World Highways was going to press Autodesk was due to announce the 2014 versions of its entire range of programs including AutoCAD, Civil 3D, NavisWorks and Revit Structural and others programs used by the road industry. As previously, they are packaged in suites; Standard, Premium and Ultimate. Key aspects focus around the inclusion of a completely new and fast point-cloud “engine” developed from the Alice Labs company acquisition made last year. Part of a new Autodesk Recap, standing for reality captur

Vital Technology has launched Xtend - a mobile rapid deployment CCTV and onboard video analytics tower system which provides surveillance and intelligent scene analysis at locations that are proving vulnerable to theft, trespass and vandalism. Described as purpose-built to cope with difficult terrain and weather conditions, the ruggedised solution incorporates a hydraulic mast (extendable to 9m) and 360° rotation tower housed in a trailer base unit with an environmentally-friendly 3000rpm generator. Xtend i

As part of the Ecotaxe toll project, Siemens is supplying service operators Eurotoll and Total with On-Board-Units worth €50 million (US$65.14 million). The project involves introducing a toll based on road performance for HGVs above 3.5tonnes on France's national highways. Production of the On-Board-Units began in Orleans in February this year. The operator écomouv is setting up a new service based on the Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS), as well as the required infrastructure for the new toll in

Leica Geosystems has launched Leica Zeno Office v3.1 and Leica MobileMatriX v5.1 software updates for the Zeno GIS series. Leica Zeno Office v3.1 and MobileMatriX v5.1 now support the new Leica CS25 GNSS, an innovative tablet computer and high accuracy data collector; Esri ArcGIS 10.0/10.1; and post-processing accuracy improvements. Johannes Hotz, senior product manager, says: “Both Zeno Office, in combination with Leica Zeno Field, and MobileMatriX further support the measurement of positions and associate

Satellite vehicle tracking technology from Isotrak is helping Skanska UK’s utilities business save on fuel and be kinder to the environment by reducing emissions. Using the real time system to track the company’s mobile workforce on the road enables efficient vehicle management and provides detailed reporting on individual driving styles for each driver. This is said to have enabled Skanska UK, a leading utility infrastructure and asset management provider, covering telecommunications, gas, power and water

AMG, the British manufacturer of sophisticated 5 Megapixel cameras and CCTV transmission solutions, showcased their new series of rugged Multi-Service Ethernet Switches at the recent Security Twenty 13 conference in Birmingham, central England. Sara Bullock, sales & marketing director of AMG Group, said the firm had developed the AMG9000A range to provide a hybrid product that bridges the gap between analogue and IP transmission technologies. “Historically, I/O requirements have been dealt with through the

Road users on a busy California highway faced an unexpected delay when a large group of motorcycle riders stopped, blocking the road as well as an exit. One of the motorcyclists set o a smoke device to highlight that the bikes had come to a halt. His friend, another of the motorcyclists, had arranged the stunt so that he could propose to his girlfriend and he promptly went down on one knee to ask for her hand in marriage. As soon as she accepted, the motorcyclists remounted their bikes and rod

A disabled French driver had a terrifying experience when the accelerator pedal on his specially- adapted vehicle failed. The man was making a trip to the supermarket when the accelerator jammed at a speed of 100km/h. But when he tried to brake, the car accelerated instead of slowing down. The driver used his cellphone to call the emergency services and several police cars came rushing to his assistance. The police cars escorted him as he roared along a major highway in Northern France, with t

A Welsh teenager has taken a rather lower cost route to becoming a racing driver than is usual. The lad was a keen kart racer from a young age and showed ability but was not deterred when the local kart track closed down. Instead he continued to hone his skills by playing videogames, nally winning the European round of a gaming competition run jointly by Sony and Nissan to see if gamers could become proper racing drivers. After completing intensive driver training, he then went on to come th

In Belgium a pensioner planning to drive 61km to a train station to pick up a friend made a somewhat longer journey than expected. The woman followed the advice of her satellite navigation system, which directed her through six countries in all and she ended up in Zagreb in Croatia, 1,440km from her original starting point. Despite seeing road signs in dierent languages, having to stop to refuel on a number of occasions and even parking in a roadside rest-stop for a sleep in her car, the woma

At least one of the riders in the Mexican president's police motorcycle escort may require some extra driver education classes. While riding at high speed through capital Mexico City, the lead police rider neglected to slow down before driving over a speed bump. The policeman was thrown from his heavy Harley Davidson motorcycle, although he luckily escaped serious injury. A video placed on the internet did however attract thousands of views, and it is unlikely his colleagues will soon let him