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Work has started on the first stage of the 4.3km-long Presov northern bypass, part of the R4 speedway in eastern Slovakia.

Road rebuilding is due to start on a key road project in Michigan State in the US.

A debate about hands-free and hand-held phone use is welcome, but if we want to improve road safety and stop killing people it misses the point, explains Shaun Helman, TRL's chief scientist The Transport Committee’s report on driving and mobile phones is to be welcomed, for focusing attention on a pressing and growing road safety issue. As someone who provided evidence to the committee, I don’t need convincing that the use of a mobile device while controlling a vehicle is something that must be considered

A major road upgrade programme is being planned for India’s Maharashtra State. A loan worth US$200 million is being provided by the Asian Development Bank (ADB) to pay for the work. The plan calls for roads in 34 of Maharashtra State’s districts to be surfaced. The State Government will provide $96 million to the programme also. The ADB is also providing a$1 million for technical assistance to the Maharashtra Rural Road Development Association.

A new bridge connecting Presidente Franco in Paraguay with Foz do Iguaçu in Brazil is now being built. The bridge will be the second spanning the Parana River in the area and is costing US$84.35 million to construct. The present Puente Internacional de la Amistad connection joins Paraguay’s Route 7 with Brazil’s Route 277 but is no longer able to cope with demand. The new bridge will carry all the heavy truck traffic passing this important international border when it opens, with the existing structure bein

A series of highway upgrades will improve transport links in Vietnam’s Mekong Delta area. Improvements will be carried out to 52km stretch of the National Highway 53. The tender process is opening shortly for this road improvement contract, with the work expected to cost around US$51.4 million. Improvements are also being planned for the Quan Lo-Phung Hiep National Highway. This work should commence in late 2019 and should be complete in 2020. Upgrades are also planned for a stretch of the Dong Thap Pro

A crackdown on drivers cheating toll fees is being carried out by the authorities responsible for the Pennsylvania Turnpike. Several drivers have been caught in Bucks Country recently, with four having been recorded as dodging around US$21,000 in tolls over a number of years and the first of their offences dating back to 2012. The worst of these offenders made 252 trips on the Pennsylvania Turnpike without paying. The other offenders made 186, 136 and 65 trips on the route respectively without paying.

A road project in Ethiopia is benefiting from a financing package worth US$98 million being provided by the African Development Bank (AfDB).

A series of major road projects are being offered for tender in the Czech Republic. The eight projects will cost in excess of €384 million. Further road project tenders will open in a few months. The work is needed as the Czech Republic scores poorly in terms of how many motorway link it has in comparison with many of its neighbours. One of the projects being planned is for a 13km motorway section connecting Belotin with Novy Jicin. Another major project is for the Brno to Zabovresky ring road, one is for u

Horiba Mira has partnered with Coventry University to deliver the Trusted and Autonomous Parking (Park-IT) project at a facility under construction in the UK. Park-IT is one of eight projects that create Testbed UK, an ecosystem led by the Centre for Connected and Autonomous Vehicles and Zenzic which seeks to accelerate the development of autonomous technology. Chris Reeves, head of C/AV technologies at Horiba - an automotive engineering and development consultancy - says Park-IT brings a testing fac

Construction work is underway on Vietnam’s key Trung Luong-My Thuan expressway project. The rate of construction has been speeded up for the section located in Tien Giang Province. Funding issues had previously slowed the work. However a complete financing package has yet to be secured.

Plans are being drawn up for a key coastal road project for Thailand. The project envisages the construction of a coastal road connection, forming part of the Thai Riviera development. The new road is being built in two separate phases, with the first of 683km and connecting Samut Songkhram to Chumphon, and the second of 578km and linking Chumphon to Songkhla. Work on phase two will commence in 2022. When complete, the road will provide a new connection between the Thai capital, Bangkok, and the Golok River

Construction is still underway on Russia’s key highway project, the M11 route connecting Moscow with St Petersburg. The seventh stage of the project, measuring 103km, is now opening for traffic. Building this seventh stage involved laying 7.6 million m2 of asphalt and using 13 million m3 of sand. The eighth stage of the M11 highway will connect with the St Petersburg Ring Road and is around 85% complete. Should work continue to plan, the entire M11 highway will open to traffic in October 2019.

A new study has rated the road network in the Czech Republic very poorly. The study was carried out by Raiffeisenbank and shows that the country’s road network is the sixth worst in the EU. According to the study’s findings, the Czech Republic €4.66 billion less in its road network than the average for other countries of a similar size during the 2010 to 2017 period. The Czech Republic requires an additional 800km of highways, with this network intended for completion by 2030. However, highway construction