News

Contractor ÍAV has suspended its construction of a road through the Gálgahraun lava field in Iceland until the courts rule on whether or not the halted project can be completed. The suspension of the project was agreed with environmental protection group Hraunavinir ('Lava Friends'), which has pledged to continue its protest against the road. As part of the agreement reached with Hraunavnir, ÍAV will in the meantime work on other projects that won’t have an irreversible impact on the lava field.

Colombia's national infrastructure agency ANI will auction 13 road projects with a combined value of more than US$7.87 billion (COP 15 trillion) in H1 2014, out of 40 planned. Nine of the scheduled auction projects have gone through the pre-qualification stage and will be definitely awarded in the first quarter of next year. In total, all 40 projects will involve investments of COP 47tn. The plan is to improve 8,000kms of roads in the country.

The Spanish Road Association (FAEC) now opening its fifth International Award for Innovation in Highway Juan Antonio Fernández del Campo competition to entries. This biennial competition started in 2005 with the aim of promoting research and innovation in the road infrastructure sector. Spanish is used for the entrants as the language of international scientific reference. The prize can be awarded for various factors to a single person or teams of individuals, designers of projects, studies, for research or

The IRF is carrying out an online safety seminar on 27th September. This will be held at 11am US Eastern time. The seminar will highlight key issues such as maintenance tasks being carried out on high speed, high traffic volume roads at night. While these night time work zones do cause less traffic congestion due to the reduced traffic volumes, they can be very dangerous for both motorists and workers if they are not properly designed. Many traffic accidents happen at night due to drivers who are drinking o

The fourth and final section of the Milton-Madison Bridge in the US has now been demolished. This aged 740m long structure was no longer able to cope with the traffic volumes along the route and has been demolished to make way for a new bridge. The bridge connects the US states of Indiana and Kentucky and has provided a key traffic route for the busy US421 over the Ohio River for many years. In a rather innovative piece of engineering, the new bridge has been constructed alongside the old structure and even

The forthcoming 29th edition of Samoter, the Italy-based International Triennial earthmoving and building machinery exhibition, represents the perfect opportunity for Italian construction machine manufacturers to showcase their expertise to leading national and international industry figures. The keenly awaited show taking place alongside Alsphaltica in Verona from 8-11 May 2014 could provide a huge boost to the tough domestic Italian construction machine sales market while, also, boosting vital export l

The Oregon Department of Transportation (ODOT) is setting up a Road Usage Charge Summit. This event will allow attendees to share information about the state Oregon’s recently passed road usage charge legislation. ODOT is inviting interested vendors, service providers and officials from other US states to the event on November 13th for a one day meeting focussing on road user charging. ODOT wants to share details as well as gather information that can help it establish first road usage charge programme for

Financing has been found to fund construction work on the North Tarrant Express (NTE) in Texas. The public-private partnership project for Segment 3A of the route will be carried out by NTE Mobility Partners Segments 3 LLC (NTEMP3). The rebuilding of the I-35W road close to Fort Worth will help reduce traffic congestion on the route at peak periods. The public-private partnership has been agreed between NTEMP3, the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) and the North Central Texas Council of Governments

The Ohio Turnpike and Infrastructure Commission (OTIC) has approved funding for 10 projects worth a combined US$930 million located in northern Ohio, each within 20 miles of the Turnpike. The projects will be funded using bond proceeds that were the result of Governor Kasich’s Ohio Jobs and Transportation Plan. OTIC conducted a special meeting on 9 September 2013 to hear Turnpike staff analysis of the 12 Transportation Review Advisory Committee (TRAC) projects that were presented to the Commission by th

New South Wales Premier Barry O'Farrell has given the go-ahead for the US$10.92 billion (AUD 11.5 billion) Westconnex motorway project in Sydney, Australia. A total of $1.4 billion (AUD 1.5 billion) has been pledged by Prime Minister Tony Abbott over four years, while $1.68 billion (AUD 1.8 billion) has been committed by the state government. The private sector will channel the remaining fund through tolls. A toll for using the 33km motorway will be reportedly capped at $7.21 (AUD 7.70). With its constru

India’s Inter Ministerial Group (IMG) has proposed that the country’s central government allocate more than €668 million (INR 56.1 billion) for the Amritsar-Delhi-Kolkata Industrial Corridor (ADKIC). The 15-year funding would develop an Integrated Manufacturing Cluster in Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Jharkhand, Haryana, West Bengal, Bihar and Uttarakhand where the 150km-200km corridor passes. The ADKIC’s 20-city spread will be aligned to the Eastern Development Freight Corridor (EDFC) and will use the Public P

The Dutch government is to invest €2.8 billion to lay 149km of new roads in 2014, according to minister for transport Melanie Schultz. A further €300 million is to be invested in the usability of roads. This will focus on ways of spreading traffic out on key highways and testing technology for potential use in traffic information and rush hour avoidance projects.

Completion of the final stretch of the D8 highway in the Czech Republic will be delayed. The 4.7km section of highway in the Czech region of Usti Nad Labem Oldrich Bubenicek will not be built by 2015 as planned originally. A landslide that occurred near Litochovice in June 2013 is the reason for the delay. Additional geotechnical surveys now have to be carried out before work can commence to to repair the damage cause by the landslide. It is possible that the results of the survey work will show that the ro

A consortium is to handle the concession package for Malaysia’s Kinrara-Damansara Expressway (Kidex) project. The concession and contracting consortium comprises the construction companies Emrail and Zabima Engineering and Construction. The concession for the 13.5km stretch of road is being agreed with the Malaysian Government. Construction work commenced in May 2011 and will take close to three years to complete. The project is costing close to US$700 million while the concession package is for a period of