News

Spanish contractor Ferrovial is commencing work on a new highway in Saudi Arabia in partnership with local firm Al Fahd Contracting. The project is for the construction of a 10km section of highway in Riyadh for client, ArRiyadh Development Authority (ADA). The project is worth some US$197 million. Ferrovial subsidiary Ferrovial Agroman will work on this project alongside Al Fahd Contracting. The work includes building three intersections as well as installing traffic monitoring technology. In total, the pr

An analytical road video surveillance system will be introduced in Moscow by the end of 2014 in a bid to reduce accidents and improve emergency services’ response to them. The system will automatically detect road accidents, traffic jams, and dangerous situations on the roads, as well as report on emergency situations to operators, who will make decisions on further actions. It will also analyse data from some 2,500 surveillance cameras and some 15,000 city cameras with a recording function.

The state government of Maharashtra in west India is planning to build a 35km road between Kandivli and Nariman Point in the state's western suburban region. The US$1.33 billion (INR 80 billion) road is planned to have 18 access points and the state government might appoint BrihanMumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) or Maharashtra State Road Development Corporation (MSRDC) to implement the project on a joint venture basis.

The European Union Road Federation (ERF) has extended the deadline for submission of abstracts for the 2014 edition of the AFB20(2) Roadside Safety Design Conference until 30 June 2014. The Conference on 5 November 2014 at the CEN headquarters in Brussels, Belgium will be the perfect opportunity for road safety experts around the globe to gather and exchange information concerning the latest trends and developments in the area of passive safety and road safety design. Abstracts should be a maximum two pag

Specialist firms Bekaert and Maccaferri are establishing a partnership aimed at the tunneling market. The two companies will set up a global sales and distribution joint venture that will provide construction reinforcement solutions for underground infrastructure projects. Bekaert, is a market and technology leader in steel wire transformation and coatings, while Maccaferri is a supplier of advanced solutions to the civil, geotechnical and environmental construction markets. The companies will set up the pa

UK motor insurance firm Aviva has called for tougher custodial sentences for fraudulent 'slam-ons' – road traffic accidents deliberately caused in order to claim for whiplash compensation – which increased by 51% in the UK during 2013, according to Aviva’s claims fraud data. These induced accidents have a value of over €12.5 million (£10 million) and are at the highest levels ever detected by the insurer. In total, Aviva has over 6,000 motor injury claims linked to organised fraud activity and is calling f

Work looks set to restart on a key section of Algeria’s East-West highway. The country's national highways agency, the ANA, has issued the Japanese group Cojaal with a second formal request to restart work on a 359km section of the highway. Cojaal, along with the Chinese firm Citic-CRCC had been contracted to build 900km of the highway, which links the west of the country with the east. The Chinese section of the highway has been completed (although it was delayed) but Cojaal has yet to finish its section o

Transport Scotland has awarded Amey a six-year contract to maintain and improve the motorways and trunk roads in South East Scotland. The commission, which is valued at over €115.3 million (£90 million), is subject to up to two one-year extensions and will see Amey deliver engineering design and operational delivery services for more than 885km (550 miles) of road. Under the Scottish Trunk Roads Unit South East (STRU SE) contract Amey will be responsible for managing and maintaining routes through Central

Strabag consortium has won a tender for the construction of a 4.5km S7 dual carriageway section in the eastern part of Krakow, Poland. The investment will also include the construction of a bridge over the Vistula River. The gross value of the offer made by Strabag reached almost €127.93 million (PLN 529 million), which is less than the budget of the investor set at PLN 610.3 million. In total nine offers have been submitted in the tender. All bidders offered a ten-year guarantee and a 27-month deadline.

A further €821.07 million (CHF 1 billion) is to be spent on reducing traffic problems on Swiss roads, including the A4. The FORTA fund should be used to finance the expansion of the motorways between Meyrin and Vernier-Le Vengeron, Luterbach and Harkingen and Andelfingen and Winterthour. A further €32.83 million should be spent on work around Crissier, which already benefited from €98.51 million of the €1.14 billion allotted in the first phase of traffic jam reduction. The second €816.85 million phase is to

The Bahrain government is to purchase around 200 plots of private seafront land in order to build a new US$265.21 million (BHD 100 million) coastal highway. The highway will connect the Seef District and the new Northern Town, a town being built off the coast of Duraz. The town will feature a government housing development of 1,618 low-cost housing units and 367 mid-range units. The highway project will not affect the World Heritage Site status of Bahrain Fort. Work on the new coastal route will start by th

Bentley Systems is calling for submissions to the 2014 Be Inspired Awards program. The deadline for entries is July 10, 2014. The awards are selected by an independent jury of industry experts and identify innovations for design, engineering, construction, delivery and operation of better-performing, safer, and more resilient infrastructure. The 18 award categories cover every aspect of the built environment. All Bentley software users are invited to enter projects in the awards programme, no matter what ph

A UK academic claims that research shows higher prison sentences are unlikely to deter death by driving offences. University of Leicester professor Sally Kyd Cunningham suggests new laws from the UK Government could fail as a deterrent to crimes committed while driving. In the wake of the Government’s recent announcement of a comprehensive review of driving offences and penalties, an academic from the University of Leicester has argued that higher prison sentences could fail to act as a deterrent against de

Auction firm Ritchie Bros has scored a strong sales performance after a series of three heavy equipment auctions in Edmonton, Canada. In all, the firm sold over C$300 million worth of equipment, with this latest auction held recently accounting for C$104 million of machines. The company sold over 5,350 items of heavy equipment to customers from all over the world with the units for sale coming from 863 different sellers and strong prices being achieved. In all there were some 5,800 bidders from over 50 coun