News

A series of major highway construction and road repair projects is planned for Serbia. The World Bank (WB), the European Investment Bank (EIB) and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) have all been in talks with the Serbian Government concerning funding for the work. Funding worth €408.46 million has been approved by the three banks for programme of highway construction and road repairs.

A new highway is planned in Malaysia that will run through Terengganu State and link Hulu Besut and Hulu Terengganu. The local authorities are setting funds aside worth nearly US$160 million for the highway project. The work will be carried out in stages and will take 36-48 months to complete. The first phase will be for a 40km stretch of the highway and is expected to cost some $35 million.

A complex legal tangle is surrounding Brazil’s BR-101 highway concession. The signing of the concession deal was suspended following the issue of two separate injunctions by the country’s legal authorities. These injunctions also delayed bidding that had been planned by the ANTT, Brazil's National Authority for Terrestrial Transport. The concession for the BR-101 highway was originally won in January 2012 by with a bid that was lower than the minimum set by the Brazilian Government.

Plans are being drawn up for an immersed tunnel close to Sao Paulo in Brazil. The tender process is being initiated to find a consultancy company prepared to handle the engineering design work. The tunnel will connect Santos and Guaruja. The US$6.1 million engineering tender is being offered by Brazilian company Desenvolvimento Rodoviario (Dersa).

Work on an extension to the express lanes on the I-95 Interstate highway in the US will be carried by Fluor Enterprises and the Transurban Group. The two companies have a 76 year concession package to operate and maintain the toll road infrastructure for the section of I-95 under a joint venture arrangement, 95 Express, The 147km stretch of express lanes on the I-95 highway will be owned by The Virginia Department of Transportation (VDOT) however.

Efkon India has announced that is has provided design, installation, and commissioning solutions for the three main toll plazas and three ramp toll plazas of the Yamuna Expressway Project (YEP) - a 165km highway stretch connecting Delhi with Agra – that will be inaugurated today. The toll plazas comprise a total of 129 lanes and all main plazas have 32 lanes furnished with fully automatic and semi-automatic fare collection system. The solution includes 24 weigh-in-motion (WIM) systems across all main plazas

Work on the new Trakiya Highway in Bulgaria is on track, with some 70km already open to traffic. When it is complete, the new highway will link Karnobat and Burgas on Bulgaria’s Black Sea coast. The final section of the Trakiya Highway, Lot 4, is due for completion in February 2013 and openin this stretch will allow the entire route to be used, reducing travel times between capital Sofia and Burgas.

Colombia’s Santander Department is to see major investment in repairing and improving its road network. The Colombian Transport Ministry intends to spend US$2.4 billion on a series of road repairs and upgrades. Major highways being improved under the plans include the Curos-Malaga road and the Bucaramanga-Cuestaboba link. The Curos-Malaga road upgrade is expected to cost around $77 million while the Bucaramanga-Cuestaboba improvement project is likely to cost some $43.5 million.

The Romanian Transport Ministry has completed its plans for the Targu-Mures-Lasi highway, with final approval pending from the Romanian Government. The highway measures 289km long and is expected to take four years to construct and will cost some €8.71 billion in all.

In Uzbekistan a major road link between capital Tashkent and Osh will now be upgraded. US$211 million is being provided by the Uzbekistan Government for the upgrade work, which is required to improve the road surface and also widen the link and allow it to carry heavier traffic. The Asian Development Bank is supplying finances worth $167 million for the road improvement work.

Research shows that keep batteries within optimum operating temperatures will increase the range of electric vehicles. It is widely known that batteries perform less well in cold weather but is often overlooked that overheating will also cause problems. For batteries to provide a long service life, overheating has to be prevented and temperatures kept within the optimum operating range of 20-35°C.

Sophisticated new automatic braking technology could boost road safety and reduce accident levels. Car manufacturers are poised to make the introduction of Autonomous Emergency Braking (AEB) technology across a wide array of new models due for launch. Some AEB systems have been fitted to a number of, mostly high-end, models from firms including Audi, Ford, Honda, Jaguar, Lexus, Mercedes, Volvo and VW.

Two key highway projects in Italy are exhibiting good progress at present. Construction work on the new Brescia-Milan highway link is now more than 50% complete. The bridges crossing the Serio, Adda and Oglio rivers are 84% complete, while the underpasses and drainage is 49% ready. Service stations, surveying and foundation work is 40% complete while the remaining operations are 227% ready. Italian road construction firm Brebemi believes that the highway be will be complete and open to traffic by 31 Decembe

Sophisticated wireless charging technology could offer major benefits to users of electric vehicles. A number of firms have been working together on developing new wireless charging systems that could reduce delays and extend range for drivers. Inductive-charging systems are being tested at present, with Renault carrying out research in Europe on its electric vehicles.