Features

Technology from 3M is helping reduce the incidence of speeding in the UK city of Salford.

New tunnelling technology from BASF has helped cut construction time on a major tunnel project in Australia. The system has been used to speed waterproofing, an important point as the link runs underneath one of Australia's major rivers. The spray-applied polymer membrane provided by a BASF sprayed concrete machine saved time and effort on the construction of the Clem Jones 7 Tunnel (Clem 7) in Brisbane, Australia. The 4.8km tunnel was completed seven months ahead of schedule and at its lowest point Clem 7

Motorists are already benefiting from greater visibility on a stretch of the M25 and between the M2 and M20 near the port of Dover, County Kent, south-east England, where Astucia SolarLite studs have been installed. Now drivers between junctions 3 and 6 on the M40 motorway heading north-west from the M25 out of London also benefit from the studs.

Danish company DELTA, a leading supplier of retroreflectometers for road markings and road signs, will launch its LTL-M mobile retroreflectometer at Traffex in Birmingham, UK.

As engineers write tighter and tighter specifications for grouting, so equipment manufacturers must develop solutions which can help contractors meet those specifications, and prove that they have met them Atlas Copco's new mobile grouting system, Unigrout Smart A, has been designed to do just that: it can mix, pump, monitor, log and control flow and pressure precisely. The control system allows on site mixing of a range of grouts as required by the project.

A new agreement between Volvo and Sweden's CeDe Group will see a new range of tunneling machines coming to the market.

Eleven outstanding projects honoured for leading the way in road industry excellence. The winners of the 2010 Global Road Achievement Awards (GRAA) Competition were recognised at the 10th Annual 25 January, 2011. Eleven projects from six different countries around the world were each honoured for leading the way in excellence in a respective category of the road industry.

Michel Démarre gives some historical insights into public-private partnerships conceived to implement urban infrastructure projects, a concept that surprisingly dates back to as early as the 13th century!

Elta Fans supplied specialist ventilation fans for the A3 Hindhead Tunnel in Surrey, UK which opened in July this year.

Road markings as a simple yet extremely effective method of guiding motorists safely on the world's road. Patrick Smith reports. Road markings are as important as road signs and give information about the roads being travelled on and actions that drivers should or should not be taking. For example, in many instances white lines often tell motorists something about the road: longitudinal lines can warn of situations that require action such as turn right, left or do not cross. Transverse lines often mean giv

For the last two years a team of European partners has been examining the interaction between vehicle tyres and road surfaces. According to the UK's TRL, one of the partners in the European project Tyrosafe (Tyre and Road Surface Optimisation for Skid resistance And Further Effects), devices to measure skid resistance were developed at the forerunner of the UK's TRL in the 1930s.

2011 has already seen a host of new machine introductions among compact equipment makers, and we take a look at some of them in the utility sector With emissions legislation dominating the introduction of new machines over 130kW, smaller equipment has not been overlooked. Most firms have been working feverishly to produce quieter, more economical and more productive equipment and Japanese maker Takeuchi is a good example, having recently introduced a new 8.5 tonne midi excavator.

Work-related road safety is an emerging source of concern throughout Europe, which needs renewed commitment from all those involved. It is estimated that in the EU-15, 39% of fatal work accidents are road traffic accidents, and this number would even be considerably higher should accidents while commuting to and from work be included.