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The Main Public Roads Administration for the Moscow region has prepared a draft decree banning the use of regional roads by trucks weighting over 12tonnes from 6am until 10pm. The ban on use of the Moscow Ring Road by trucks during daytime was introduced in March last year. The final decision on whether or not to ban 12tonne plus trucks on regional roads during daytime will be made by the Moscow region's government.

The construction of the Marão road tunnel in Portugal will be resumed in the first half of 2014 – ending a two-year suspension of works due to the financial constraints of the winning Somague-led build consortium.

The construction of the Marão road tunnel in Portugal will be resumed in the first half of 2014 – ending a two-year suspension of works due to the financial constraints of the winning Somague-led build consortium. The concession for the tunnel, which, at 5.6km, will be Portugal’s longest road tunnel, is now under the control of the state road agency Estradas de Portugal. Another investment of €150 million (US$ 202.91 million) is required to complete the major infrastructure works, earmarked for completio

Banks, builders, pension funds and Colombian government officers are discussing plans to finance around 40 new road concessions worth a combined US$23.86 billion (COP 47 trillion). According to market reports, the winners of these concessions will cover around 25% of their final cost. These funds will be paid in the first two years of each project and the winning firms will look to recoup their investment through road tolls. Banks will cover 30% of the cost via 12-18 year loans. The national development ban

A 17.5km undersea tunnel may be built to link Karimum Island in Sumatra's Riau and Kukup in Johor's Pontian (Malaysia). A memorandum of understanding (MoU) has been sealed by Pelalawan Regency of Indonesia's Riau Province and University Teknologi Malaysia (UTM) to study the tunnel’s feasibility. The Johor-Riau undersea tunnel link is expected to cost US$4.52 billion (MYR 15 billion). The build figure would be cheaper than an earlier proposal to construct the Dumai (Indonesia)-Malacca (Malaysia) bridge w

The number of road deaths in France last year fell by 11% to 3,250, 403 fewer than in 2012. Revealing the figures, Minister of the Interior Manuel Valls said they were the lowest number since the first national road death statistics were recorded in 1948. Deaths of 18-24 year olds on French roads during 2013 were down 10% year-on-year, with road deaths of car occupants down 14%. Deaths of cyclists on French roads were down 8%, pedestrian road deaths fell by 7% and 3% fewer motorcyclists were killed on the

Road construction projects worth around US$335 million (ETB 6.5 billion) combined have been awarded by the Ethiopian Roads Authority (ERA) to three Chinese companies, as part of the fourth Road Sector Development Programme. According to a Fortune report, a $25.04 million (ETB 485 million) contract was awarded to China Railway Seventh Group Co for building a 44km long road in Zagora, and five 30m bridges. Another company, China Railway No.3 Engineering Group Co, secured a $72.3 million (ETB 1.4 billion) dea

A just released video shows the dramatic implosion of a Rio de Janeiro viaduct as part of the Brazilian city’s preparatory works for the 2016 Olympic Games. Fábio Bruno Construções (FBC), the company behind the blast, shot the seven-minute film in November 2013 to illustrate what happens behind the scenes on this kind of project. The film illustrates how FBC expertly used explosives to simply drop the viaduct down a level in a controlled and pre-determined manner.

The Conexpo-Con/Agg and IFPE 2014 exhibitions are rapidly building momentum as the shows prepare to open their doors in six weeks. Last week, the shows recorded their best week of registration ever and organisers’ say advance registration is tracking ahead of the last events. The shows are already record-breakers for exhibit space – more than 213,676m² indoors and outdoors for Conexpo and Con/Agg and 14,864m² for IFPE – making it easier for attendees to connect with exhibitors. Meanwhile, new education

The International Transport Forum (ITF) at the OECD (Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development) opened a new chapter in its long-standing cooperation with the corporate world after staging its first meeting on Monday 20 January 2014. Twelve multi-national companies from seven countries met in Paris to inaugurate the Forum's new Corporate Partnership Board (CPB). The CPB will serve as the ITF's mechanism for including expert knowledge from corporations in transport and related areas for policy a

Cement manufacturers are launching projects to install new cement works in Morocco despite poor market conditions. The CEO of Ciments du Maroc, Mohamed Chaibi, believes that improvements in current demand are temporary, while Dominique Drouet, chairman of the board of directors at Holcim is reprted as anticipating a 12% drop in activity in the cement industry at the end of 2013 and expecting the decline to continue in 2014. A cement works with a production capacity of 1 million tonnes costs an average

Cement manufacturers are launching projects to install new cement works in Morocco despite poor market conditions. The CEO of Ciments du Maroc, Mohamed Chaibi, believes that improvements in current demand are temporary, while Dominique Drouet, chairman of the board of directors at Holcim is reprted as anticipating a 12% drop in activity in the cement industry at the end of 2013 and expecting the decline to continue in 2014. A cement works with a production capacity of 1 million tonnes costs an average

France and Sweden are the most adept car-sharing nations, according to an Ipsos study. Following the research involving 10,500 people in 12 countries, the most adept car-sharing populations are the Swedes (21%), the French (21%) and the Germans (20%). For Italians, Spaniards, Americans, Canadians and Australians, the rate of car-sharers is 13-15%. By contrast, only 7% of the British, 3% of Norwegians and 1% of the Japanese practise car-sharing. The Ipsos study also shows that car-sharing is especially attr

No Parking - a driver in East Africa had a notion to leave his car rather too close to his house - image courtesy of World Highways reader Francis Gicheru

The Swiss Government may extend the use of flexible speed limits, which apply only at certain times, on motorways. In future flexible speed limits could affect 450kms of the country’s motorway network, up from 170kms now. The Government believes that this would lead to a better use of road capacities. Studies have shown that when people drive more slowly they leave smaller gaps between their vehicles and the ones in front. This improves efficiency. According to current plans, the maximum speed will be redu