News

Work is commencing on a new road link that will connect the A89 and A6 Autoroutes in France’s Rhône Department. In addition, work is also underway on the construction of the new Semanet viaduct connecting Route Nationale 6 with Autoroute 6. The viaduct is being built with a steel deck sitting on concrete supports. The construction work is being managed by Autoroute operator APRR. Once the work is complete in 2018, it will help reduce journey times between Bordeaux and Geneva.

A new bridge is being built in Austria to span the Danube River. The project is expected to cost €60 million. The new link will be constructed in the city of Linz. Construction of the new Donaubrücke (Danube Bridge) will commence in late 2017. The link is expected to open to traffic in the third quarter of 2020. The state of Upper Austria will provided 40% of the financing required.

The Czech government is to speed up motorway building in 2017, with 140km of new roads planned. The announcement comes as the country is looking at a new laws designed to streamline infrastructure tendering and to improve construction management, according to CIJ – Construction and Investment Journal. Projects can sometimes take as long as 12 years to get off the ground, the journal reported. Skanska boss Michal Jurka, the head of Skanska in the Czech Republic and Slovakia since September, said p

Workers in Slovakia have broken through the first of two passages in a tunnel near Zilina as part of an 11km D1 highway project. Breakthrough of the second passage of the tunnel on the section Hricovske Podhradie-Lietavska Lucka will likely be in January. Around 80m are still to be bored, according to a report in the Slovak Spectator on-line newspaper. Zilina is in northwestern Slovakia, around 200km from the capital Bratislava and close to the Czech and Polish borders. Juraj Valent, head of the Na

Construction work on a new elevated highway route through Vietnamese conurbation Ho Chi Minh City is commencing. The project involves building a 30.4km stretch of highway, Elevated Road No5, through the busy metropolis and is expected to cost US$785.25 million. The new four lane road will run above National Highway 1A, with the work forming part of a wider project intended to help reduce Ho Chi Minh City’s chronic congestion problems. In all the city’s road transport department plans to construct five of th

Kenya’s Lower Eastern Region is set to benefit from a major upgrade being carried out. The project is costing close to US$182 million and involves laying an asphalt surface on a 192km road connecting the towns of Kibwezi, Ikutha, Mutomo. Kitui, Kabati and Migwani. The project is of key economic importance to the region and will help trade and transport along the route. Rural road reconstruction is a key target for Kenya’s Government in its plan to develop the country economically. Redeveloping the road will

Plans are well underway in Myanmar for a new bridge connecting Thanlyin and Yangon. The project is expected to be complete by 2022 and is expected to cost US$302 million. The link will be tolled and will carry an estimated 5,000 vehicles/day when it opens to traffic. A loan facility from Japan is expected to pay for the majority of the project. An international contractor will carry out the main portion of the project, although sub-contracting will be carried out by local firms.

UK exports of components and parts significantly fell in the third quarter by total weight (down 33.5%) and value (down 20.5%), compared with Q2. The report from the Construction Equipment Association provides an update on quarterly exports and imports of components and parts. Data is taken from the UK government’s official trade statistics and is available in tonnage and monetary value of machinery and component parts (products). Products included are buckets and attachments, blades, parts for boring or

India’s road deaths are providing a wider cause for concern. Official data pegs the road fatality rate for the country at over 146,000 in 2015, an increase over the 139,671 recorded in 2014. However there are also thought to be many unreported deaths, so the actual figure could be considerably higher. India's Ministry of State for Road Transport and Highways has revealed that there were 501,423 reported road crashes in 2015, a worrying increase from the 489,400 crashes in 2014. There were more than 500,0

A loan of US$100 million will help pay for a bridge spanning the Volta River in Ghana.

SES America (SESA) is hosting a webinar on 15 December, dedicated to solar ITS solutions, from 1300-1400 ET, 1000-11000 PT. The webinar, Powering ITS anywhere, anytime with solar energy solutions, will discuss the seven myths about solar-powered DMS (dynamic message signs) and why the rise of solar power has paved a way for ITS. It will also discuss how to calculate an optimised solar ITS system. More information and details of how to join the webinar are on SESA’s website.

Josh de Wit, a second-year mechanical engineering student from the University of Sussex, has won the Autocar-Courland Next Generation Award for 2016 with a concept that could dramatically reduce charging times for electric vehicles (EVs) and reduce the weight of their batteries. Josh’s design harnesses the remarkable qualities of graphene, a form of pure carbon in sheets that are just one atom thick. A car battery made with stacked graphene, he says, would take far less time to charge, store more energy

US transportation solutions provider McCain has recently completed the first deployment of its low-voltage 350i ATC cabinet for the Georgia Department of Transportation (GDOT) in an effort to improve congestion and traffic flow at a troublesome dual-intersection location. The McCain low-voltage 350i ATC Cabinet was delivered to GDOT by local McCain distributor, Utilicom Supply Associates and offers GDOT the ability to control up to 32 channels, twice the industry norm. Powered by Schneider Electric's inn

Work on the La Molina-Miraflores tunnel project looks set to recommence in the second quarter of 2017. The US$500 million project is being managed by Spanish contractor OHL and is one of three major road projects being carried out by the firm in the country, which are worth a total of some $1.5 billion. The necessary land acquisitions and clearance work for the tunnel should be complete by January 2017. Planning and design should take around 10 months while the work to drive the La Molina-Miraflores tunnel