News

While reclaimed asphalt pavement is not a new idea, there are new and innovative technologies coming all the time to improve its application and durability. This RAP is “black gold”, as Thierry De Sars, technical director at Groupe Fayat, told delegates at the Pavement Preservation and Recycling Summit conference in Paris this week. But it all comes down to cost savings and efficiencies that importantly include increasingly precise dozing to get the exact amount of bitumen laid down on a pass. De Sars cauti

The Egyptian Government is investing both in road development and road safety, setting strategies in place for future development. The country has a construction programme that will see some 3,600km new roads being built. At the same time, the Egyptian Government has set a budget of some US$5 billion to improve road safety. The authorities in the country have identified the need to boost road safety to international standards as Egypt’s crash statistics and road casualty levels are of concern and have a ver

Forget planes, trains and shipping if you want to be a successful global multi-national says Michelin: the only way to get the right things to the right places on time and on cost is by road. Speaking at the PPRS Paris 2015 pavement preservation and recycling summit, Michelin corporate affairs vice president Eric Le Corre said “we are a worldwide industrial giant that could not operate without good roads. Roads give the critical advantage in logistical terms. We can only be successful if the roads we use ar

The financial crisis may be easing but the geopolitical situation will continue to hamper heavy equipment sales for some years yet, according to David Phillips, head of Off Highway Research, based in the UK. Gone are the heady days of pre-2007, “when it was unbelievably easy to get credit” to buy machinery, Phillips told delegates during his presentation on day two of the Pavement Preservation and Recycling Summit in Paris this week. North America alone counted for up to half of world demand for equipment w

Extra compaction forces can be delivered using adapted equipment

Heavy equipment auction specialist Ritchie Bros set a record for a recent event in Florida. The firm sold over 10,500 items of heavy equipment items and trucks at the auction, held last week in Orlando, Florida. The five-day unreserved public auction ran from February 16th – 20th and attracted over 9,350 bidders who made offers either in person at the event or online. The bidders came from 81 countries while the auction generated over $179 million in gross auction proceeds. This included over $66 million of

Road owners around the world “need a highway to heaven” according to Michael Cramer MEP, chairman of the European Parliament transport committee. Speaking at PPRS Paris 2015, the pavement preservation and recycling summit, Cramer said that Europe’s current road policy “lies somewhere between AC/DC’s Highway to Hell and Led Zeppelin’s Stairway to Heaven” and that, to mis-quote Bill Clinton, the EU needs to start thinking “it’s road maintenance stupid” whenever the subject of highway investment is under consi

Mexico is cutting its planned motorway construction budget. The country's Secretariat for Transport and Communications (SCT) has said the budget will be cut by US$268.8 million, a reduction of 17% from the figure planned originally. The 130 different projects that were to have been carried out under the original budget will still be built, but a number may be delayed. Road construction has been a key priority for this government in Mexico. In all some 46 new motorways will have been constructed by the prese

In Serbia plans are being drawn up for a new tunnel project. The planned route for the road tunnel would run under the mountain of Kadinjaca and connect the towns of Uzice and Bajina Basta. The plans are being drawn up by the Regional Development Agency Zlatibor, with tendering due for a feasibility study into the project. Funding looks set to be provided from European sources with some €176,000 to cover all the necessary project documentation and the paperwork should be ready by the end of 2016. The estima

Road freight’s share in global trade will increase from 6% to 10% by 2050, driven by increasing intra-regional trade, according to the latest report by the International Transport Forum. This growth is especially likely in Asia and Africa where efficient rail networks are and could remain underdeveloped, noted the report ITF Transport Outlook 2015. Hit hard by the global crisis in 2009, road freight volume grew 3% annually from 2010-12 in member countries of the OECD – the Organisation for Economic Co-opera