Bitumen provides more durable road surface
When the main commuter route into Cardiff, the Welsh capital, began to suffer from acute deformation, the Vale of Glamorgan Council required a durable and faster alternative to hot rolled asphalt to ensure minimum disruption for local road users.
Korean bridge construction poses challenges
On South Korea's southern coast, an innovative highway sea crossing is providing many engineering challenges
The new Busan-Geoje crosses from South Korea's second city to its biggest island and is slightly shorter than the 12km of the country's famous Incheon project. In addition the main cable stay bridge for the Busan-Geoje project has a 475m span rather than the 800m of the Incheon central span. However the 8.2km Busan-Geoje project faces perhaps greater technical challenges and also includes a second b
Asphalt milling key to runway upgrade project
Work is continuing to upgrade Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport (CSIA), India's largest airport in Mumbai, the country's largest city.
The airport is equipped with a cross runway system (primary runway) and (secondary runway), with both intersecting each other at a common point.
As part of the overall master plan for the modernisation of CSIA, Mumbai International Airport (MIAL) is completely reconstructing both the runways to create an efficient airside infrastructure, which is the core of an
Rapid adoption of GPS machine control
The high sophistication of GPS machine control systems has resulted in a fast pace of technological advancement. The three major players in the machine control sector, Leica Geosystems, Topcon and Trimble have all made major gains in recent years. The sophistication of the latest systems can combine satellite position data from the GPS and GLONASS networks with information from total stations to provide precise, high speed machine operation. Further more the firms have also prepared themselves for the intro
Grade control system improves machine guidance
A new Caterpillar grade control system can be installed at the factory to certain Tier 4 Interim/ Stage IIIB emission compliant dozers, graders, scrapers and excavators. The technology improves operator efficiency and equipment performance while reducing the overall cost of a machine guidance system on site.
Key highway projects planned for Vietnam
Vietnam's new highway projects Key highway projects are being planned in Vietnam including the Ninh Binh-Thanh Hoa Expressway, which will run for 127km and is expected to cost US$1.6 billion to construct.
Boom in Asian infrastructure investment
Investment in China and India continues unabated, but other nations on the continent are eager to attract companies as Patrick Smith reports Asia is still booming despite the current economic crisis, and new infrastructure programmes are constantly coming on stream. Powerhouses China and India, with their double-digit growth figures and huge infrastructure plans (in scope and cost), are leading the way and are still magnets for businesses wishing to expand, both in terms of facilities and customers. But oth
New factory for excavator components
Caterpillar plans to open a new manufacturing facility in Xuzhou, Jiangsu Province, China, to produce undercarriage components and track assemblies, which are utilised on Cat hydraulic excavators.
India's first construction event a huge success
The first bC India event has exceeded all expectations and it is set to become a regular event. Patrick Smith reports
A major new construction equipment show has been launched in a nation with a huge appetite for such machinery and a growth rate nudging 9% each year. With billions being spent on infrastructure (roads and highways, power stations, railways, ports and airports), India was a prime candidate for a trade fair to display the latest and local international construction machinery, building materia
Developing a new range of tunnelling machines
A new agreement between Volvo and Sweden's CeDe Group will see a new range of tunneling machines coming to the market.
New grit effective at de-icing
German firm Bisotherm is now offering a new product designed to prevent slipping in icy or snow conditions. Called RUTSCHEX PLUS, the product is claimed to be ecologically sustainable as well as highly effective.
Magnetic filtration units increase efficiency
One of the USA’s largest and best-known dealers for Caterpillar off-road vehicles, Whayne Supply, has teamed up with a small UK engineering company, Magnom, to introduce magnetic filtration units that have been shown to increase operational efficiency and decrease downtime.
Investment in bitumen facilities
Earlier this year Shell Australia unveiled two major investments in bitumen facilities to help meet demand across eastern Australia.
ITS JPO Releases Turbo Architecture Version 7.0
The US Department of Transportation's ITS Joint Program Office has announced the latest update to Turbo Architecture 7.0, a software application that supports development of regional and project ITS architectures using the National ITS Architecture as a reference. Turbo Architecture is heavily utilised by transportation system professionals in both the public and private sectors to document the inventory and interfaces for regional and project ITS architectures.
India plans major infrastucture investment
India says it turned its Commonwealth Games into a world-class success, and now it aims to do the same with its infrastructure. Patrick Smith reports
On October, 2010 India put itself on the world stage, and disaster appeared to loom as a catalogue of problems dogged its biggest ever sporting event.
Costing nearly US$2 billion to stage, the most expensive Commonwealth Games ever were, according to some, in doubt.
After years of planning some projects were incomplete, there were health scares and a br
Construction equipment sells well in China
Century deal for Volvo CE Volvo Construction Equipment sold 100 heavy excavators to mining, highway and real estate company Tang Sunrise Investment during its sales promotion in the Chinese city of Fuquing.
Measuring durability of Australia's roads
The Danish Road Directorate has signed a contract with the Australian states of New South Wales and Queensland regarding the measurements of more than 16,000km of roads.
Caterpillar's new buckets
Caterpillar Work Tools is introducing a new line of pin-on and coupler buckets for its 374D and 390D hydraulic excavators, featuring improved designs to take advantage of increased machine performance.
A new joint transport agreement has been struck by Afghanistan, Iran and Takijistan
An agreement between the political leaders of Afghanistan, Iran and Tajikistan will boost transport connectivity between these nations. The agreement is for joint development of road and railway projects that will link the three countries. Details of the transport projects have not yet been revealed. Other aspects of the agreement relate to cross-border distribution of electricity as well as gas and oil pipelines.
Silk Road: 'viable alternative'
The final results of the International Road Transport Union's (IRU) New Eurasian Land Transport Initiative (NELTI)-Phase 2 have confirmed road trade links between Europe and Asia as an economically-attractive and viable alternative to traditional, saturated maritime trading routes.
This was unveiled at the recent 6th IRU Euro-Asian Road Transport Conference and Ministerial Meeting held in Tbilisi, the Georgian capital, which concluded that removing the remaining procedural impediments at borders and deve