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Croatia’s minister of infrastructure, Oleg Butkovic, said a winner will be chosen to build the controversial Peljeski Bridge on the Adriatic Sea coast by summer 2017. The project, valued at around €370 million, will be carried out in three phases. In June, a tender was started by the national roads company Hrvatske Ceste but was halted last month over complaints by some bidders about pre-qualification issues. The State Commission for Control of Public Ordering recently rejected the pre-qualificatio

Concern is being expressed in the EU over an increase in road deaths for 2015 compared with 2014. Road deaths from crashes grew by 0.5% to 26,112. Although the increase is slight, The EU is trying to reduce road deaths and the figures for 2015 are of concern. The stated aim for the EU in the 2010-2020 period is to halve road deaths, but progress now looks to have faltered. Finland saw an increase in road deaths of 16%, while the Netherlands and Austria saw road fatalities rise by around 11%. Most dangero

The organisers of the bauma CONEXPO India 2016 exhibition say that they have strong confidence in the event. The strength of the Indian market for construction machinery marks it out against most other Asian nations, where growth is more limited. Strong demand for construction machines in India has been fuelled by the resurgence of the country’s highway programme as well as other infrastructure developments. The show organisers point out that India is currently the only national market in Asia experiencing

Speeding and distracted driving are key concerns for UK road users. Those are seen as the highest threat to safety according to a survey carried out jointly by road safety charity Brake, Aviva and Specsavers. The survey asked 1,000 drivers to identify which driving behaviour, from a list of six, they thought posed the biggest danger. And 76% ranked speeding or distraction most highly. Driving under the influence was also ranked highly, with 18% thinking drink- and drug-drivers are the biggest threat. But

A new highway connection is now under construction that will link capital Beijing to Zhangjiakou. The new road will be 113km long and is being constructed to improve accessibility for the 2022 Winter Olympics being held in Beijing. The project will be carried out under the PPP model according to the official Chinese news agency, Xinhua. The expressway is one of several infrastructure projects underway in Heibei Province at present. New high speed rail links are being constructed while Zhangjiakou airport is

Transmission specialist Dana Incorporated has struck an agreement to purchase the power-transmission and fluid power businesses of Brevini Group. Under terms of the agreement, Dana plans to initially purchase an 80% share in the Brevini businesses, with an option to purchase the remaining 20% by 2020. Dana has valued the Brevini businesses at €325 million, including the assumption of approximately €100 million of net debt. The acquisition will expand Dana's product portfolio with adjacent technologies. I

A series of road development projects will now move ahead in India’s Karnataka State. Some US$536.51 million is being budgeted by the Union Surface Transport Ministry. This includes funding for road projects in the twin cities of Dharwad and Hubballi. The funds will be used to surface six main roads in Dharwad, 13 main roads in Hubballi and nine roads in Dharwad and Hubballi.

The International Tunnelling and Underground Space Association (ITA) has granted a lifetime achievement award to Dr Ing Martin Herrenknecht. The award was presented at the recent ITA event in Singapore and reflects his experience in delivering a series of ambitious tunnelling projects. In the past 20 years Herrenknecht has met major challenges in tunnel engineering and delivered effective solutions for projects. Key successes include the twin drive, 57km-long Gotthard Base Tunnel in Switzerland that open

Evonik Industries recently hosted an award ceremony at the Residence of the German Ambassador in Thailand’s capital Bangkok. Evonik used the event to present the “Evonik Road Safety Award” to the Department of Rural Roads, Thailand (DRR). This is in recognition for the DRR’s contributions to road safety in Thailand, especially in rural areas.

Construction work is proceeding on track for the Paniga Tunnel project in Italy, with the primary drilling and blasting phase now having been completed. Located in Morbegno in northern Lombardy, the tunnel forms part of a bypass stretch for state road 38. Work on the project started in 2015 and is being carried out by Cossi Costruzioni, a subsidiary of Italian civil engineering company Societa Italiana per Condotte d'Acqua (Condotte). The client for the project is ANAS, the Italian state-controlled road com

Hill & Smith Holdings reports a healthy performance for the period 1 July 2016 to 31 October 2016. The firm’s board says that trading has continued to be encouraging and that it expects Group trading performance for the current financial year to be at the top end of market expectations. The group’s results will also benefit from the positive translational impact on its overseas earnings from the recent weakness in Sterling.

Advanced research could provide warnings as to damage to infrastructure. The research project has been carried out jointly by the National Physical Laboratory and University of Strathclyde. This uses mathematical techniques to provide early warning signals of structural damage in civil megastructures. The technique uses tipping point analysis to review data from structural health sensors on civil constructions, identifying early warning signs of upcoming damage. According to the research partners, this is f

Strong demand for compact machines is being seen. Data from Veronafiere’s SaMoTer Outlook in collaboration with Prometeia and with the information input of equipment manufacturing association Unacea has shown the growth in the market for small machines. Mini excavators and small wheeled loaders weighing up to 6tonnes have seen a particular growth in sales. These two types of machines accounted for 15% of global sales for Italian manufacturers in 2010, but accounted for 24% in 2015. Sales of mini excavato

Euro Auctions reports strong sales success at recent events it has run in Brisbane, Australia and Atlanta in the US. Both auctions showed customers keen to buy secondhand machines at healthy price levels according to the firm. In Atlanta, Georgia, USA Euro Auctions continues to benefit from a good demand for used machines. Its recent plant, machinery and vehicle sale in Atlanta in late October achieved sales of US$2.72 million. This represented a 25% increase in revenue from the firm’s previous sale, whi

Research reveals that demand for asphalt has slipped in the UK. This comes after good sales of asphalt in the UK during 2015 and on the back of two years of market growth. The latest figures suggest that the asphalt market could fall by 3% in 2016, after recovering by nearly 20% in the previous two years. These are some of the conclusions of BDS Marketing’s annual report on the sector that has just been published, called ‘Estimated outputs of asphalt plants in Great Britain’. Commenting on the report,