Features

CIFA’s latest addition to Energya: the E9 electric mixer mounted on a Volvo electric truck, a 100% electric vehicle that works in a fully sustainable manner. Energya - CIFA's brand with the first and only range of electric machines in the concrete industry - aims to reduce CO2 emissions and noise pollution on the job site to zero, helping to make the transport and laying of concrete more environmentally friendly. Thanks to the electrical operation, new opportunities are opening up for the use of heavy-duty vehicles, particularly in densely populated historic centres and on sites with restrictions, where lower environmental impact is an added value.

Wacker Neuson, a leading light and compact equipment manufacturer, remains on course for strong growth despite increasing signs of a general economic slowdown.

Construction work is finally underway for a major new highway link in Zimbabwe after many years of false starts.

The massive Bulk Earthworks project, under development by the federal government-owned Western Sydney Airport (WSA), entails construction of an international airport on the western side of Sydney, Australia.

The International Road Federation (IRF) has just unveiled the 60th Edition of the IRF World Road Statistics (WRS), the most complete and latest road and transport data.

Expansion of the Panamericana Oeste highway is an infrastructure project that will help guarantee the future of Panama - Mauro Nogarin writes

Opened in 1955, the A2 is one of the busiest motorways in Switzerland, crossing the Alps and forming the main north-south axis from Basel to Chiasso. On a 3km stretch near the village of Rodi in Ticino, a ZX155W-7 owned by Otto Scerri SA has been employed on a project to replace the central reservation with asphalt, as well as renew the drainage between the two lanes of the highway.

In the world of road maintenance and paving, as well as construction, the issue of recovering material deriving from demolition and scarification is becoming increasingly urgent, with the dual objective of combining environmental protection with economic savings. Those who work in the sector are well aware of the huge costs of transporting and disposing of asphalt and material from demolition, as well as the costs for the purchase and transport of new raw materials to the site. Now, as never before, the sector features its own circular economy, particularly in regards to bituminous conglomerates: road paving can be recycled several times, in full compliance with the regulations in force.

One of the steepest sections of the B 500, an important road in the southern Black Forest, had to be renewed in the summer of 2023 – more precisely: the first kilometres behind the Triberg town sign, past the famous waterfalls. Asphalt paving specialists from Gebrüder Bantle GmbH & Co. KG were commissioned to resurface the carriageway.

The shift toward a circular economy approach is key to the transition towards net zero carbon emissions. At Volvo Construction Equipment (Volvo CE), keeping construction machines – and their parts – in action for longer, to maximise their useful life, is a core part of its sustainability ambitions.

Machine manufacturers and construction companies around the globe are currently searching for ways to achieve the goal of climate-neutral construction. The challenge here is to successively reduce emissions of CO2 and other harmful gases (summarized to CO2 equivalents: CO2e) around the world to zero over the coming decades. In the road construction sector, this transformation is inextricably linked to the improvement and further development of production and working processes. In the future, machines and construction materials will also be assessed based on the climate-harmful emissions arising from their production and use. However, the focus should not be on individual machines, but on the entire process leading up to the finished product – a road. Ultimately, the decisive factor is the emissions generated per kilometer of newly built or rehabilitated road – the “CO2e per work done”.

These days, even those beasts of the construction site – excavators – have a date with sustainability, despite the huge amount of electric power needed to operate a machine that pushes about high loads of dirt.

Sophisticated solutions allows the use of RAP in asphalt mixes.

Advances in asphalt production will reduce carbon emissions and energy consumption.