News

The news that former French president, Jacques Chirac, has died aged 86 should be of note for those in the road safety sector. His political legacy is well known. Chirac was prime minister of France from 1974 to 1976 and again from 1986 to 1988, mayor of Paris from 1977 to 1995 and finally president from 1995 to 2007. But his political reputation ended under a cloud following his suspended sentence on corruption charges. Perhaps less well widely known however is that Chirac had a tremendously beneficial e

One of the world’s most famous road crossings is benefiting from an upgrade, on a key anniversary.

This year’s European Day Without A Road Death (Project EDWARD) takes place today, emphasising a theme of vulnerability. It is organised by the European Traffic Police Network (TISPOL), which offers a somewhat pessimistic view of the state of play. “We have spent time reflecting on recent results which paint a very mixed picture of progress in reducing deaths and serious injuries on Europe’s roads,” TISPOL says in a statement. “For the first few years of this decade, countries across the EU have been highly

The construction schedule has been set for Russia’s Moscow to Kazan highway project. The project is now expected to cost US$3.75 billion, with the route forming part of the highway connecting Western Europe with China. The stretches connecting Moscow with Vladimir and Kanash with Kazan should be ready for traffic in late 2024. The stretches linking Vladimir with Murom and Murom with Arzamas are due for completion in 2025. The stretches from Arzamas to Kanash should be ready in 2027.

A new highway project is being planned for New Zealand’s North Island.

Construction work is due to start on the expressway project connecting Busega with Mpigi in Uganda. The contract was awarded to the Chinese construction firms China Civil Engineering Construction Corporation (CCECC) and China Railway 19th Bureau Group Company Limited. The companies have established a joint venture partnership to handle the work. The project is costing around US$147 million and the 24km expressway should take around three years to build. A loan from the African Development Bank is helping to

Smoking a single cigarette containing cannabis can lengthen reaction times by 17-20%, while the effects can last for up to 13 hours. That is the result of research carried out in France.

An important new bridge project is underway in the Philippines. The structure has been designed to be resistant to earthquakes and is located in Surigao del Norte province. The structure is around 85.5% complete and is being built from corrugated steel plates and will replace the Anao-aon Bridge. This previous structure was wrecked by an earthquake measuring 6.7 on the Richter Scale, which hit the area in February 2017. Many other bridges, roads and airports will be constructed using corrugated steel plates

A new survey carried out in Latvia has highlighted the country’s problem with poor bridge condition.

Brazil’s road safety problem is improving gradually. Data provided by the national transport confederation, CNT, reveals that there were 69,206 crashes on Brazil’s federal roads during 2018. Of these, 53,963 crashes involved serious injury or death. There were 5,269 road deaths in Brazil during 2018, the lowest since 2007, when CNT began compiling the country’s road crash data. According to CNT, there has been a steady decline in road deaths and serious injuries on Brazil’s roads since 2012.

A new bridge project is being planned for Vietnam’s Ho Chi Minh City (HCMC). The Thu Thiem 4 Bridge will be 2.2km in length and measure 28m wide and has a projected cost of US$223 million. The bridge will span the Saigon River and connect District 2 with Tan Thuan Dong in District 7, featuring three lanes for vehicle traffic in either direction as well as pedestrian facilities. The construction of the bridge is expected to ease journey times in HCMC, which is notorious for its heavy traffic and chronic cong

The annual tunnelling conference and competition is due to take place in Miami from the 18th-20th November in Miami, Florida. The competition features eight categories and aims to identify the most important ongoing underground works and technologies that help cities change and enable habits and ways of life to evolve in order to build smart and sustainable urba

China’s Sichuan Province is working on a major programme of road development works that will help expand and improve the overall network. Worth an impressive US$26.3 billion in all, the programme includes 29 separate projects. The main focus of the works will be on eight expressways, which will extend for a total of 981km. Five of the expressways are being developed by the Sichuan Transportation Investment Group. These are for the G0615 Barkam to Jigzhi route, the Mianyang to Cangxi link, the Cangxi to Bazh