Highway & Network Management

Scottish Roads Partnership (SRP) has been announced as preferred bidder for the design, construction, financing and operation of a major infrastructure project to complete the Central Scotland motorway network. The key project will complete the motorway network between Glasgow and Edinburgh by upgrading the A8 trunk road between Baillieston and Newhouse to full motorway standards. It also includes work to improve the Raith Interchange and widening key sections of the M8, M73 and M74. This involves constr

Poland is to benefit from a €17.5 billion investment in its transport infrastructure from 2014-2020, according to the country’s Deputy Minister for Regional Development, Adam Zdzieblo. The substantial sum is part of an over EU Infrastructure and Environment programme worth over €24.1 billion. Other than transport, areas of investment will be the same as for the previous EU programme, including health protection, culture, energy, and environmental protection. The exception is higher education, which will

Republican Congressman Bill Shuster has told a gathering of public and private sector leaders that improving and maintaining the American transport system is critical to staying globally competitive, and that a broad education process is needed to improve awareness of infrastructure needs. Shuster, chairman of the U.S. House Transportation & Infrastructure Committee, was the keynote speaker at the 26 August 2013 annual meeting of Build Up Greater Cleveland (BUGC), a Northeast Ohio coalition of agencies i

Dutch Minister of Infrastructure and Environment Melanie Schultz van Haegen wants all building contractors to use LED lights in the construction and renovation of tunnels in the Netherlands. The Minister said she will include this as a functional condition in contracts. Schultz van Haegen has stressed how LED lights consume less energy while emitting more light, making them a better option for lighting in tunnels.

Speed radars in France reportedly recorded just over 2.82 million speeding motorists between 1 July and 15 August 2013, as opposed to just over 3.49 million during the same period of 2012. Fixed radars caught an average of 20 offenders a day in the summer of 2013, down from 27 in 2012. On-board radars caught 15 offenders per day, down from 19 in 2012. The number of radars went from 3,105 to 3,262 in one year. A decrease in speeds on roads (which also lowered mortality by 5.7% in July 2013) and in increas

The number of people who died in road traffic accidents in Germany fell by 14.1% (239) to 1,454 in the first half of 2013, according to preliminary figures given by Germany's Federal Statistics Office, Destatis. The number of people injured in road traffic accidents over the same six-month period fell by 8.8% year-on-year to around 167,700. The overall number of accidents registered by the police decreased by 1.5% to around 1.15 million in the first half of 2013.

Siemens is supplying an intelligent transportation system for the Polish city of Poznan after winning a near-€15 million contract from the Poznan transportation authority ZDM (Zarzad Dróg Miejskich w Poznaniu). Real-time traffic data from more than 200 measurement points, such as intersections, parking lots and public transport, will be collected in the city’s traffic management centre, evaluated and processed using Sitraffic Concert. The Siemens system, set to be commissioned in spring 2015, will pr

Motorway traffic in Brazil is increasing again, following three quarters of decreasing vehicle numbers on the roads. Road concessionaire CCR reported an overall 6.2% year-on-year increase in traffic April-June 2013, seeing growth of 10% on some of its motorways. EcoRodovias, meanwhile, recorded a 7.7% increase over the same period, said to be down to additional HGV traffic. Similarly, Arteris registered a 5.6% increase in motorway traffic in Q2 2013, expecting overall growth of 4.4% for 2013.

The Driving Safety Club based in the United States has launched a website aimed at saving lives and raising driving safety awareness. The website, www.TheDrivingSafetyClub.com, was created by The Driving Safety Club founder and president, former auto executive and New York musician, Tony Michaels. “I fear that if the general public does not change their attitude towards safe driving, all of our roadways will get more dangerous for each and every one who drives or travels on America’s highways,” said Michael