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Be careful where you park your car in Florence, Italy. Might be best to not leave your vehicle next to the River Arno. In this case, 20 drivers returned to their cars only to find them sitting in a 6.5m deep sinkhole next to the river. The ‘hole’ appeared after what media reports said was a water main burst that flooded the road’s substructure, dropping nearly 200m of pavement into rushing water from the ruptured pipe. Vehicles remained out of the river, thanks to a brick wall. Nobody was injured in the

A driver in Wales drove around for a day with an estimated 20,000 unwelcome passengers until the problem got to be too evident. The video shows the car of the 65-year-old grandmother, finally parked in the small town of Haverfordwest, literally buzzing with bees. Apparently, a queen bee got stuck on the vehicle and her community decided to follow the car and stick to it as well. It took two members of the Pembrokeshire Beekeepers' Association, a park ranger and some local people to coax the travelers

Roman Brecely, Slovakia’s transport minister, has said that construction of the 2km long motorway tunnel Cebrat near Ruzomberok could be resumed at the beginning of 2017. But the cost is expected to increase by around €100 million. He added that the government likely will seek European Union funding. Construction was halted a year ago over concerns about the possibility of landslides and other geological issues. For this reason, the tunnel route may alter and be an additional 1.5km longer. The tunn

Institute of Quarrying (IQ) CEO Phil James is leaving for a new role after four years in charge of the UK-based organisation. He had joined the IQ in late 2012 as joint CEO with MPQC and drew on his rare combination of quarry management experience and professional body expertise in executing his senior role. James will become the new CEO of the Institute of Leadership and Management (ILM) in September 2016. In his new post he plans to continue his link with the minerals industry and to combine the challenge

Contractor Balfour Beatty is to construct new truck parking facilities alongside the M20 motorway in Kent in the UK. The package of works was awarded by Highways England and the £130 million deal covers the development of the proposals during the Early Contractor Involvement (ECI) phase of the project. This deal also includes the construction of the lorry area subject to a decision to proceed from the UK Government. The £250 million truck parking area was initially announced by the UK’s Chancellor of the Ex

Researchers at the University of British Columbia (UBC) in Canada believe they may have discovered a cure for ‘concrete cancer’, which afflicts many concrete structures. The Canadian claims for a concrete cancer cure revolve around a novel method for producing concrete using discarded glass. Researchers at UBC’s Okanagan campus were able to reduce the chemical reaction that previously caused glass-fed concrete to weaken, expand and crack. This reaction is widely referred to as concrete cancer. “Every

Paraguay is setting out plans for a series of major road development works, with this programme being planned by the country’s Ministry of Works. The Paraguayan Government says it will spend some US$1 billion on road projects in the area around Chaco, with those of highest priority being built within the next two years. The most important of the projects is the bi-oceanic corridor, which is expected to cost some $700 million to construct. The work on the bi-oceanic corridor is receiving financial support fr

The latest report by Brandon Schoettle and Michael Sivak, Sustainable Worldwide Transportation at the University of Michigan, builds on their recent series of eight reports addressing public opinion, human factors, and safety-related issues concerning self-driving vehicles. An identical survey to that used in 2015 was administered. The survey was developed to examine motorists’ preferences among levels of vehicle automation, including preferences for interacting with and overall concern about riding in s

The European Commission’s latest figures for road safety reveal some cause for concern across the EU. While the EU has the world’s safest roads overall, the road fatality rate has slipped during 2015. And this is for the second consecutive year also as EU road deaths in 2014 also showed an increase over 2013. By comparison, there were decreases in the European road death rate of 8% in 2012 and 2013.

An in-depth analysis of crash statistics from Italy shows that road safety is improving in the country, albeit slowly. The Italian National Statistiscs Institute has published the yearly report (2014) covering road crashes. The data reveals that in 2014 there were 1777,031 crashes involving injuries. This represents a drop of 2.5% compared with the figures for 2013. In all 3,381 people were killed in road crashes in Italy during 2014, a drop of 0.6% compared with 2013. The number of serious injuries from ro

Concern is being expressed for the safety of young drivers. Statistics both from the US and the UK reveal the shockingly high risk of young drivers being involved in crashes. They also reveal that young drivers are a danger not only to themselves, but to other road users as well as the occupants of their own vehicles. The latest figures from the UK show that 2,088 young drivers and passengers aged from 17-24 were killed and seriously injured in just one year. Although the data shows that drivers aged fro

Colombia’s National Infrastructure Agency (ANI) has approved Consorcio Estructura Plural Via al Puerto to build the remaining 26.5km of the Buga-Buenaventura dual carriageway. Construction costs will be just under US$358 million with another $645 million likely needed to maintain and operate the public-private partnership road for 30 years. Works include construction of two tunnels, 12 bridges, 7.5km of cycle lanes, as well as maintenance of 111km of the main road, according to a report by El Pais new

Caterpillar Work Tools, a manufacturer of excavator and wheel loader attachments, has opened a distribution centre in Den Bosch, Netherlands. The distribution centre will provide shorter shipping times as well as increased product availability to Work Tools customers and Cat dealers in EAME - Europe, Africa, Middle East - as well as CIS countries, the former Soviet Union states. The 9,000m2 centre houses hydraulic items such as grapples, hammers, pulverisers and shears as well as fabricated tools, including