Materials

The strong road construction market in Morocco is helping boost the quarrying market in the country substantially. One such operation exists near the town of Ben Slimane, situated north of Casablanca. Agregat Oued Cherrat (AOC) owns a 65ha quarry, one of the largest of the 14 in the region and when the firm decided to buy new excavators, it also opted to buy Hitachi machines. AOC placed an order for one ZX330-3, with the second delivered three months later and the company now has three ZX330-3s, with a four

Close to Sweden's second largest city Göthenburg lies the efficient Jehander quarrying operation run by Heidelberg Cement. The site produces around 9,000tonnes/day at peak seasonal demand and has an output of some 1,000,000tonnes/year. The site has recently renewed its operating permission and now has the necessary approval to work until 2021.

Egyptian contractor Orascom has set up a new quarry site in the country's desert area, close to the city of Assuit. The quarry was opened specifically to supply Orascom's major road construction projects in this area of Egypt, with high quality aggregates.

BP Bitumen has launched its new SafetyFirst initiative using "some best in class industry practices" to help its partners better understand some of the main hazards associated with bitumen storage and handling. The bitumen industry has worked hard at improving safety and has achieved significant results. "But we still need to be more vigilant: we want to ensure that our plant employees, and customer employees as well as third party employees, are sustaining continuous personal development, utilising best pr

Spanish company DITECPESA has developed, manufactured and sold asphalt products since 1988, and has grown steadily due to the supply and quality of its services, the extension of its product range, and the use of applied research projects.

A novel single part post mix concrete is now available in the Ultracrete line-up from the Instarmac Group. The SUPER FIX product delivers a rapid hardening blend of cements, graded aggregates and additives and suits duties such as the installation of posts, fences and poles. The product is said to be simple and easy to use and requires the addition of water on-site. Versatile and rapid setting, the product is poured into the post fixing hole and water is then added. This speeds installation and eliminates t

Choosing the correct high performance binder material for use in asphalt applications has been made easier following a product rebranding exercise by one company. Awareness among highway maintenance contractors of the benefits of selecting polymer modified bitumens when specifying road surfacing materials has risen markedly in the last few years.

The first motorway connecting the cities of Hyderabad-Bangalore will be approximately 600km long, with three lanes in both directions. It will represent an important change in India as the country will benefit from a fast and greater flow of communication, transportation and commerce networks, which up until now have been carried out mainly by sea.

Work is continuing to upgrade Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport (CSIA), India's largest airport in Mumbai, the country's largest city.

A huge highway upgrade project will transform the Cairo-Alexandria road link into a world-class connection as Mike Woof reports