Features

Special applications require stringent quality control and with compaction machines a key part of the paving process, their contribution can be vital. A high quality finish has helped athletes breaking sporting records on the track at the Shanghai Stadium in China during this year's 2008 Summer Olympic Games. Built in 1997 the stadium has been the venue for numerous major sporting events prior to the Olympics, however its track was showing signs of wear and the local authorities decided that a full refurbis

A growing demand for equipment to be used in recycling applications is helping boost the market for demolition attachments Manufacturers have been keen to invest in technology, developing new models and with more innovations to come. There are several key players in the hydraulic breaker sector, with Atlas Copco and Sandvik dominating this market segment. However other breaker manufacturers are major players too, including Indeco, Furukawa and NPK, while there are also specialist attachment producers such a

Modern asphalt plants are a far cry from the early models, and are capable of producing a wide variety of mixes at the touch of a button. Patrick Smith reports Cutting-edge software-based control technology makes today's asphalt mixing plants simple and efficient to operate. The tightening of clean air regulations is reducing the emissions from the plants, and the current focus is on the goal of raising the processed portion of reclaimed asphalt (RA) towards 100%, says Ammann Group, which has been involved

At Steinexpo 2008, Kleemann exhibited its MC 120 Z jaw crusher from the new generation of MOBICAT jaw crushers, as well as the mobile MOBISCREEN MS 16 D screening plant. The MC 120 Z, a classical quarrying machine, is also well suited for concrete recycling, says the German company, a member of the Wirtgen Group. With its 1,200mm wide and 800mm deep crusher inlet, it is designed for a feed capacity of up to 400tonnes/hr, and has a number of features that are said to contribute to its highly efficient operat

A Dynapac PL350T cold planer helped carry out critical demarcation work on the roads used for the famous Isle of Man's TT motorcycle races. It was used to remove the road markings on the isle in the Irish Sea in readiness for the races. The Dynapac machine is equipped with a special micro milling drum which contains 117 bits, compared to the standard 38, spaced at intervals of 3mm as opposed to the conventional 12mm. In addition, to avoid a sharp edge at the sides of the demarcation area, the drum is slight

Neckarauer overpass, a railroad bridge adjacent to the plant of German paving equipment manufacturer Vögele, is one of Mannheim's main traffic arteries. Built in 1936, the overpass represents an important link into the city for commuters coming from the south of the Rhine-Neckar region being used by some 60,000 vehicles/day, together with several tram lines running every five minutes. Corrosion has caused heavy damage to the steel girder bridge, and recently a 30km/hour speed limit has been in place along w

More than 3,000 vehicles a day pass over the US-95 Bridge over Lake Creek near the Coeur D'Alene Tribal Casino in Worley, Idaho, USA. The original deck, built in 2007, was poured concrete with a micro-silica layer added for protection. A QTT weather station with FreezeFree anti-icing technology is mounted in the bridge rail. With big variances in temperature and a lot of wind in this region, the original deck material became thick causing a near 80m length of micro-silica to over-harden. Idaho DOT engineers

Aquajet's new Ecosilence Power Pack has been tested to its limits on the tunnel/bridge renovation work in the city's historic Old Town and has exceeded all expectations, according to E-Schakt's project supervisor, Andreas Nordstrom. Equipment from the Swedish company, including Ecosilence making its debut, is being used in the tunnel and on the 1.2km Central Bridge (or 'Three Bridges'), which was built in the 1950s and which links the northern district of Norrmalm and the southern district of Södermalm. It

Several important Bulgarian road projects are expected to gain momentum over the coming weeks, a welcome boost for a sector that has been beset by delays in the past. In mid-September, the National Road Infrastructure Agency (NRIA) announced that it would soon be declaring new tenders for the construction of two key road projects worth a total of US$94 million (approximately €68.8 million). One section will link the south-eastern city of Kardzhali to Podkova, near the Greek border: the second will connect t

It has taken a long time to complete, but a vital motorway link is open to traffic as Heikki Harri reports After almost 50 years of construction, the M1 motorway linking Helsinki, the Finnish capital city and Turku, the country's old capital in the southwest, is finally completed. It did not take all 50 years of construction but the first section from Helsinki towards the west was constructed in the mid -1960s. Then there was a pause until mid-1990s when the works resumed section by section. The final sect

Road infrastructure has a core role to play in improving road safety and accident statistics often understate this. Marco Mongiello reports Everybody agrees that road safety is a very important issue. In 2006 in the European Union (EU 25) there were 38,400 casualties and 1,700,000 road injuries, with a total cost of E160 billion. For most people there are no doubts: the driver's behaviour is to blame. However, "road infrastructure has a core role to play in improving road safety and this has been recognised

The problem: motorcyclist fatalities can occur from a variety of accidents. But in the United States in 2005, motorcyclists comprised 42% of fatalities due to guardrail collisions, whereas only 3% of vehicles on the roads were motorcycles (Gabler, 2007). More motorcyclists were killed in guardrail collisions than passengers of any other vehicle type in 2005 (Gabler, 2007). Guardrails cannot simply be removed to protect motorcyclists. However, improvements need to be made in several areas in order to keep mo

Students from nearly two dozen universities entered the 2008 IRF Essay Competition. Each student was asked to submit an essay which addressed a topic under this year's theme of road safety The winner was Allison Daniello, a junior mechanical engineering student at Virginia Tech. She completed her paper, titled 'Motorcycle-Guardrail Crashes: How can the risk of severe injury and fatality be reduced?' under the supervision of Dr Clay Gabler. Her work was selected by a panel of international judges with expert

The second comprehensive transport study of Jiangsu Province is a good example of road policy in action. Samuel C F Wong, Technical Director, Scott Wilson Ltd explains Jiangsu Province on the eastern coast of China, with a population of 76 million, is one of the fastest growing in the country. Between 1990 and 2007 GDP growth averaged some 16%/year. Economic growth, however, has not occurred evenly. Two-thirds of the province's wealth has accumulated in its southern half. With Jiangsu's rapid economic expan