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Construction work on the planned tunnel for the Polish islands of Uznam and Wolin will commence in 2021. The islands lie on Poland’s Baltic Coast and this €184 million tunnel project is intended to improve transport connections in the area. The ferries used at present are ageing and are no longer able to cope adequately with the number of vehicles using the crossing. Up to 11,000 vehicles/day make the crossing during peak summer months, with around 2 million vehicles/year making the trip by ferry at present

A new proposal for congestion charging in Los Angeles has been put forward as a possible solution to the city’s traffic woes. The CEO of the Los Angeles Metro system has suggested that a congestion charge for drivers could be used to allow riders to use the city’s transit system for free. Under the proposed scheme, drivers would be charged for entering certain districts of the city at peak travel periods. The proposal has been put forward as a way of smoothing out transport ahead of the 2028 Olympic Games.

Italian contractor Itinera will build the new 99m-long and 31m-wide Skurusunds Bridge near Stockholm in Sweden. Trafikverket, the Swedish transport administration, awarded the €75 million contract to Itinera, part of Gruppo Gavio. The new bridge will be parallel to the existing bridge which will remain. It handles around 52,000 vehicles daily, many of them commuting to and from Stockholm. Work will include improvements to traffic junctions at Skuru and Björknäs. The four-lane steel bridge will have

Cambodia’s capital’s key connection construction contract is commencing. Work is now underway for the Phnom Penh ring road project. The new ring road will measure 53km long and funding for the US$273 million project is being provided jointly by the Cambodian Government and Chinese Government. Building the new ring road will take around 42 months and the new route should open to traffic in late 2021. The studies into the new route are being carried out by the Chinese specialist Guangzhou Wanan Construction S

Volvo CE says it will launch ranges of all-electric compact excavators and compact wheeled loaders. While a number of other firms already offer electric machines for these categories, Volvo CE is taking the further step of halting development of new diesel-driven machines for these categories. A number of all-electric machines are due to be unveiled at the bauma 2019 exhibition, with further models then being introduced in stages over the following year. The compact excavators will be from the EC15-EC

Kazakhstan is setting a budget of US$117 million for a series of road and bridge works in its Turkestan Region.

Planning work is being carried out for a major interstate redesign project in Miami, Florida. The US$802 million project involves the redesign of I-395 and surveying activities are now commencing. The I-395/SR 836/I-95 Project is being carried out in partnership between the Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT) and the Miami-Dade Expressway Authority (MDX). The work will be carried out between State Road (SR) 836 beginning at NW 17 Avenue and continuing through the SR 836/I-395/I-95 (Midtown) Intercha

Construction of the WestConnex project in New South Wales, Australia is facing criticism over a lack of accountability over the work. The US$11.85 billion (A$16.8 billion) project is intended to improve transport in and around the city of Sydney and involves building a 33km tolled motorway. The work is costly and complex, with much of the route being built in tunnels and this is Australia’s largest road project. However criticism has been levelled at the state government for not considering a number of opti

A controlled explosion demolished the eastern span of the old cantilever Tappan Zee Bridge across the Hudson River near New York City. The bridge, nearly 5km long, was opened in 1955 to carry traffic between the southern New England area and other regions west of the Hudson. Around 140,000 vehicles used the bridge daily. But the old bridge had deteriorated substantially and would have been too expensive to maintain or keep open for lighter traffic use. It became redundant after the new bridge of the

India’s road network and poor safety presents a major hazard. Low levels of seatbelt use by vehicle occupants in India has been identified as one of India’s road safety problems. Official data from the Indian Government states that 26,896 people died in road crashes in the country due to non-use of seatbelts in 2017. Of those who died, 16,876 were passengers. Meanwhile a further 61,942 people suffered injuries because they were not wearing seatbelts. And children are amongst those particularly at risk on t

In Colombia progress is being seen on three major bridge projects located in different parts of the country. Construction of the new Pumajero Bridge is well in hand and is expected to be complete before the end of 2019. The new PumajeroBbridge will be 2,247m in length and have 990m of viaduct connections and access, as well as two three-lane carriageways on each side. Once the new bridge is open to traffic, the old cable-stayed concrete link between Baranquilla and Sitionuevo will be demolished. The new

Concern is being expressed in the US over the correlation between cannabis use and crashes.

Carsten Karcher has been appointed secretary general of the European Asphalt Pavement Association (EAPA), based in Brussels. Karcher had been director of EAPA since 2013 and takes over from Egbert Beuving who retired as secretary general at the end of last year. Beuving will continue within EAPA as chairman of the organising committee of the Eurasphalt & Eurobitume Congress 2020 in Madrid and will remain as convenor of CEN TC227 WG1 for a several more years. Meanwhile, Breixo Gómez-Meijide, who joi

Carsten Karcher has been appointed secretary general of the European Asphalt Pavement Association (EAPA), based in Brussels. Karcher had been director of EAPA since 2013 and takes over from Egbert Beuving who retired as secretary general at the end of last year. Beuving will continue within EAPA as chairman of the organising committee of the Eurasphalt & Eurobitume Congress 2020 in Madrid and will remain as convenor of CEN TC227 WG1 for a several more years. Meanwhile, Breixo Gómez-Meijide, who joi

A new transport plan for Colombia’s capital, Bogota, is intended to cut congestion. The plans are being drawn up by Bogota council's Urban Development Institute (IDU). In all 75 separate works are included in the plan, ranging from building or upgrading 155km of roads to constructing 183km of cycle lanes. Of the 75 works outlined in the plans, the aim is for 20 to be complete by the end of 2019. The IDU estimates that the work will cost US$5.5 billion to carry out. Upgrades to the Avenida Ferrocarril shoul

Work on a new road and bridge project is planned to start in Myanmar during 2019 and is expected to take until 2022 to complete. The construction of this new link will improve transport connections with neighbouring China. The US$100 million project will be carried out in Myanmar’s Shan State, lying on the country’s eastern border with China. In all, the new bridge and road will run for 19.3km and will link Nawngcho with Gote Hteik. The existing road passes through a mountainous area along this stretch and

A pre-feasibility study is being planned for Vietnam’s Hoa Binh-Moc Chau Expressway project. Construction of the expressway is expected to cost US$857.4 million, with the work being handled under the PPP model. The 85km is planned to feature two lanes in either direction. Construction of the expressway is expected to reduce journey times between Hanoi and Son La, close to the border with Laos, from six hours at present, to just 2.5 hours in the future.

Dana Incorporated has completed the acquisition of the SME Group, based at Arzignano in Italy. The firm is a specialist suppliers of low-voltage AC induction and synchronous reluctance motors, inverters, and control. These are used in a wide range of off-highway electric vehicle applications. The addition of SME’s low-voltage motors and inverters expands Dana’s electrified product portfolio. These products are primarily designed to meet the evolution of electrification in off-highway equipment. “Dana’

A new suspension bridge in Kenya’s key port city, Mombasa, will help unlock potential – Shem Oirere reports Plans for the construction of a US$200 million suspension bridge in Kenya heva moved a notch higher. The country's urban roads agency recently announced the shortlisting of three bidders for the design, finance, construct, operate, maintain and transfer public private partnership (PPP) contract model. Kenya Urban Roads Authority (KURA) is a state agency that manages, develops, rehabilitates and mai

A fleet of machines from Chinese manufacturer XCMG has proven the reliability of the brand in very tough conditions in Russia. The three machines supplied by XCMG include one LW1200 model, the largest wheeled loader made by the company, as well as two DL900A wheeled dozers. Despite the extremely harsh winter conditions experienced at the extraction site in northern Russia’s Arctic Region, the three machines have been able to clock over 20,000 hours. All three machines have been specially configured to cope