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A deeply disliked stretch of road has proven a powerful inspiration for a symphony written by musician Sufjan Stevens. The man was commissioned to write a piece of music about his home city by the Brooklyn Academy of Music and he opted to compose his piece about the infamous Brooklyn-Queens Expressway. Called the BQE by New Yorkers, the flyover features narrow lanes, has no hard shoulder and is badly potholed, while high traffic volumes mean that jams and accidents are frequent and it has the dubious honour

In Chile a serious accident has triggered a major assessment of existing safety regulations.

A British motorist was recently stopped by police and charged for the offence of blowing his nose while his vehicle was at a standstill. The man had stopped his van in traffic and opted to use the time to wipe his nose with a handkerchief. He was then stopped by police who told him he had not been in control of his vehicle. For this offence he was fined €5.76 and given three points on his driving licence. The driver said that he thought the policeman was joking at first but quickly realised that the officer

Drivers on the busy New Jersey Turnpike in the US faced even longer delays when a Cessna light aircraft made an emergency landing on the highway. The road, one of the world's busiest, had to be closed when the aircraft glided over the vehicles using the road and came to a stop, tucked in as close to the hard shoulder as its starboard wing would allow. Somewhat ironically, the aircraft had been monitoring traffic flow on the highway. Following the incident, the highway had to be closed until the aircraft cou

A new joint report on the US transport sector is highlighting the importance of infrastructure investment for the country's economic growth.

The speedy and safe removal of old or unwanted structures is made easier with modern, sophisticated equipment, Patrick Smith reports. The power and versatility of modern demolition tools and machines was demonstrated when a bridge was removed overnight as part of a motorway widening project.

A cyclist in New Zealand appealed against a fine he was given for offensive behaviour when caught cycling in the nude. The man claimed that the country is becoming more tolerant towards nudity and that his ride along a quiet rural road 32km to the north of the city of Wellington was not offensive. Police acted when a passing motorist objected. The offence was committee on World Nude Bike Day. The man explained that he is uncomfortable wearing clothes and regularly walks around his house and carries out hous

A taxi driver in New York City went to great lengths to track the passenger who accidentally left a bag containing US$21,000 in his cab. The Bangladeshi taxi driver drove 80km to the address he found along with the money to hand back the missing sum. Finding no-one at home, he left his phone number instead. The person who had left the money, an Italian pensioner visiting her family, was extremely grateful and offered a reward although the man politely declined, saying that to accept would be against his rel

Work on a 39km toll road linking Pemalang with Batang in Indonesia is expected to start in mid-2012, although the finance structure is still being established.

Two Italian policemen were left somewhat red-faced after being involved in an accident when returning from a convention where they had been speaking to students about road safety. The policemen crashed their Lamborghini high-speed pursuit vehicle, one two donated by the manufacturer to the police, into a rather more mundane Seat Ibiza. During the incident the Lamborghini slammed into a line of parked cars, with one of the vehicles then ending up on the roof of the high performance pursuit car. The front of

Several key highway developments are being planned in Mexico, although project delays are now facing increasing public scrutiny.

A major highway deal has been agreed for a road project in Gujarat, India, worth an estimated US$810.8 million. It will be handled under the build, finance, operate and transfer basis and will involve upgrading and widening to six lanes a 102km section of National Highway 8 (NH-8) from Ahmedabad-Vadodara. The project also includes upgrading 92km of the existing Ahmedabad-Vadodara expressway. Work is expected to take three years to complete, and the 25-year concession deal for the project has been agreed bet

Plans are now in hand for a 2.7km mile tunnel in the US to be built in the city of Seattle in Washington State.

Independent ready mixed concrete and aggregates supplier Tor Multimix of Glastonbury, UK, has taken delivery of a new Liebherr L 514 PK Stereo wheeled loading shovel.

A new southern bypass is planned for Yekaterinburg in the Ural Mountains area of Russia at an estimated cost of up to US$721.5 million. When complete, the bypass will connect the existing Chelyabinsk and Perm Highways. The state-owned road company Avtodor will work with the local government for the Sverdlovsk Region to finalise the details of the company building the link.

The market for electric cars looks set to expand rapidly as the technology improves. Past vehicles have suffered from poor range imposed particularly by limitations in available battery technology.

FSP has bought the intellectual property rights for the Frangible Post System from 3M. It is now supplying the passive safety market with reinforced composite posts that will carry signs on motorways and other busy roads. The FSP product (as previously commercially developed and marketed by 3M) is designed to be strong enough to withstand turbulent weather conditions, but light and flexible enough to collapse on impact, protecting the driver and passengers and causing minimum damage to the vehicle.

Topcon Europe Positioning has released its new DL-500 series digital levels. The new Topcon DL-500 is said to implement the world's first Wave-and-Read technology. "This feature provides an additional survey style option that allows a rod person to wave the staff back and forth, instead of keeping the staff plumb," said Ian Stilgoe, geomatics business manager of Topcon Europe Positioning.

An innovative approach to power generation is being taken in Japan, with highway companies planning to rent out space to utility companies to install solar power arrays.

Plans for a new highway connecting the African nations of Mozambique, Zambia and Malawi are gathering pace. The project is likely to cost up to US$600 million to complete and will provide a key trade route between the nations, with the economies of Malawi and Mozambique in particular need of development, while Zambia's copper mining industry will benefit from the link.Some $23 million will be required to construct the first section of the road forming the Nacala Corridor.