News

A major highway project could boost connectivity in Australia. The country’s South Road upgrade would cost close to US$5.43 billion (A$7 billion) over the next 10 years. The proposal is to turn the South Road in Adelaide into a non-stop north-south corridor. To complete the work, another 34km of road needs to be developed. The strategy shows 10 different road projects need to be finished at a total $5.38 billion in today's money, and does not include two projects that have already received financing, namely

Italian bitumen plant manufacturer MASSENZA has developed its EASY 3500 SK unit as an entry model for emulsion manufacturing businesses that are on tight budgets and require small production batches of 1-3tonnes/hour. The firm has also sold one of these, its 400th emulsion plant, into the French overseas department of Reunion, an island in the Indian Ocean.

There was a big bang in a small town in the US state of Pennsylvania this month when a fragmentation explosion brought down the 100-year-old Reynolds Road Bridge. It was the end to the unloved bridge near Factoryville, population around 1,500. Factoryville is notable for a lack of factories ever since the one and only plant, a wool-into-cloth factory, closed down several years after it opened in the 1800s. Local residents were not sorry to see the felling of the 40m long, reinforced concrete arch deck

An optimistic tone in South Korea is seeing the construction of an expressway connecting Seoul and Munsan. The project is being carried out in a bid to boost trade with North Korea. This is in spite of the current uncertain political situation in North Korea. The expressway will connect South Korean capital Seoul to Munsan, which lies to the south of the Demilitarised Zone bordering North Korea. More private investment can be roped in via the plan to build the expressway. An environmental impact assessment

The Brazilian Government is considering increasing the number of projects being privatised in a bid to boost investment in the country. Brazilian president Dilma Rousseff has suggested increasing the number of federal roads included in the privatisation programme from four to 11. The economic team has presented 20 new road stretches to be considered for inclusion in the programme. These routes will be studied in order to determine which will generate the most interest from the private sector, with six or se

UK construction equipment manufacturer JCB reports lower sales than in the previous financial year. Sales turnover slid to €3.46 billion (£2.51 billion) compared with the €3.69 billion (£2.68 billion) achieved in the previous year. The firm recorded machine sales of 64,028 units, compared with 66,227 in 2013. Overall JCB says that despite improvements in some Western markets, falls in other sales territories hit overall business. The company also faced a one off restructuring cost of €15.14 million (£11 mil

Surface dressing of highways is a demanding precision process where speed and accuracy is paramount. Secmair, part of the Fayat Group, has launched its Multispray spraybar to ensure the speed rate and application of binders and additives are perfect. This spraybar combines two rows of jets that can allow two spread rates across the width of the roadway, meaning the carriageway and hard shoulder can be coated with different mixes. This can eliminate or prevent the phenomenon of bleeding. One row can be

It has been just over three months since the first Pavement Preservation and Recycling Summit in Paris -- PPRS Paris 2015 -- and now the focus will shift to a similarly exciting forum in North America. Under the banner of the cooperative Pavement Preservation Recycling Alliance (PPRA), all specialists in the sector are invited to the beautiful Canadian city of Niagara Falls to share experiences on how to protect, maintain and rehabilitate road assets in the most cost effective manner while embracing recy

The Australian Asphalt Pavement Association (AAPA) has endorsed the new concept of a fatigue endurance limit to determine the full depth asphalt pavement thickness in a freeway environment. The endorsement came from the first meeting of the AAPA’s recently appointed National Leadership and Technology Committee (NTLC) made up of senior managers in the pavement and surface technology sector. The NTLC endorsed the industry-prepared draft design guide addendum for Perpetual Pavements from AUSTROADS. AUSTR