News

A life-cycle assessment has found that an asphalt mix containing a high percentage of reclaimed asphalt pavement (RAP) along with an additive by Arizona Chemical can produce a significantly lower carbon footprint than virgin asphalt mix or a mix containing a low percentage of RAP. The assessment study was carried out by third party Arthur D. Little, an international management consulting firm, using Arizona Chemical’s SYLVAROAD RP 1000 performance additive. The work noted that cradle-to-gate, a road aspha

The Australian Government is only allocating central funding to urban road projects in its Budget 2015. Major projects that will receive federal funding are the WestConnex motorways, urban roads around Badgerys Creek and the widening of the Pacific Highway. The Federal Government will provide US$1.2 billion (A$1.5 billion) in grant funding as well as an additional $1.6 billion (A$2 billion) loan for the WestConnex project. Meanwhile the NorthConnex project under the Pennant Hills Road in Sydney will receive

Research by the RAC Foundation reveals the high risk posed by young drivers on the UK’s roads. Meanwhile the UK’s Institute of Advanced Motorists (IAM) is calling for stronger measures on drivers aged 70 or more. Young drivers aged 17-19 only account for 1.5% of the UK’s driving population but feature in 12% of crashes involving serious injuries and fatalities. Around 20% of young drivers aged 17-19 will have a crash in the first six months after passing their test according to the study. The analysis carr

Chinese firm Zoomlion has won a significant order for Saudi Arabia in the shape of a new 174RSU concrete pump. The machine is being supplied to a local equipment dealer through Zoomlion’s Concrete Machinery Branch Company’s overseas marketing company in Saudi Arabia. This is the first time Zoomlion has exported a concrete pump product to the Saudi Arabian market and it is expected to open up a route for the firm to sell more of the units to the country. The deal is of note as historically there has

Philippines-based Metro Pacific Tollways is mulling offers to invest US$600 million in a project in Vietnam’s Ho Chi Minh City. Metro Pacific Tollways president Ramoncito Fernandez said that the investment would be made through the company’s CII Bridges and Roads Investment Joint Stock Co. (CII B&R). “We are being offered new projects in Vietnam. We are now are evaluating a new project that will connect Ho Chi Minh to outskirts,” said Fernandez, without naming the project. Early this year, Metro Pacific

The Colombian government has awarded the contract for construction of the Cesar-Guajira road to Construcciones El Condor, sole bidder for the work. The deal is a US$165 million public-private partnership (PPP) aiming to improve connectivity with the country’s Caribbean coastal departments. The 350km road will connect San Roque with Cuestecita, take four years to build and employ around 1,400 workers. Colombian Vice President, German Vargas Lleras, said five projects have been approved under the PPP sc

A court in the Algerian capital Algiers has sentenced two men to 10 years in jail for their part in a money laundering scheme relating to construction of the East West Motorway.

Packing people into telephone booths in the 1950s was a lot of fun! How many people can you squeeze in? The same thing went for packing people into an old style Volkswagen Beetle car in the 1960s. All were pranks, jokes to be played out for fun. But there were no laughs among the 50 people police were helping disembark a six-seater mini-van in the Chinese city of Guiyang. All 50 passengers were on their way to work when police, not believing their eyes, pulled over the vehicle. Click here to watch

The Swedish Thomas Concrete Group has acquired assets of Coastal Concrete, a US company which operates ten concrete plants in Georgia and South Carolina. As a result, the group is strengthening its position in the concrete market across a large region on the US east coast between Atlanta and Raleigh. Coastal Concrete is one of the leading producers of ready-mixed concrete in several major cities along the Atlantic coast of Georgia and South Carolina, and the acquisition will reinforce the group's “already

Indonesia’s president Joko Widodo has vowed to complete the Trans-Papua Highway by 2019, two years later than previously scheduled. Work on the seven-year old project has been dogged by difficulties, including transporting construction equipment and material around the mountainous province on the island of New Guinea, the Jakarta Post newspaper reported The Ministry of Public Works and Public Housing said it will spend around $4.36 billion this year on infrastructure nationally. This will include reha

In China's Gansu province, the city of Lanzhou has earmarked US$10.92 billion in the next six years. The rural road network of Lanzhou will be expanded from 6,616km to 9,013km, while highways will be expanded from 354km to 614km. Lanzhou will also boost its general national and provincial roads from 759km to 1,627km. From 2015 to 2020, the province of Gansu plans to invest $80.58 billion in road construction over the next six years.

China Roads and Bridges Corporation has started work on Montengro’s first motorway that will eventually connect Bar (Tiva) on the Adriatic coast with Boljare on the border with Serbia. The first part of the 170km motorway will be a 49km stretch for which China's Exim Bank reportedly paid €94.30 million as the first installment for its construction. Also in the region, Bosnia Herzogovina is planning a new 110km highway to link its Adriatic coast to that further south in Montenegro.