News

According to online travel agency ab-in-den-urlaub.de around five million German cars are taken by their owners on European holidays each year. However, following a survey, the company has calculated that 515,874 parking tickets with a value of €53.6 million were sent to German drivers from outside Germany during 2009. Ironically, Germany generally sends fewer fines to drivers from other countries.

The city of Coventry in central England is to benefit from over £64 million (€77.25 million) to replace the majority of its street lighting. Regional and Local Transport Minister, Norman Baker said: “This is very good news for Coventry. Better lighting means a reduction in the fear of crime, less light pollution and a safer, more user-friendly night time environment for everyone.” Coventry City Council, which is promoting the project, has signed individual PFI contracts with Balfour Beatty.

Northern Ireland construction company, Lagan Construction, is celebrating its part in two major infrastructure projects in Ireland. The company said that the openings of the A1 dual carriageway bypass at Newry, Northern Ireland, and the Limerick Tunnel, Republic of Ireland, were major achievements, and had employed 350 people over the past four years. The €138 million Newry bypass, commissioned by the Roads Service in December 2007 and completed five months ahead of schedule, was delivered by Amey Lagan

Norphonic emergency roadside telephones (ERT) have been selected for the Hardanger Bridge, one of the world’s longest suspension bridges, crossing the picturesque Hardangerfjord in southwestern Norway. The Hardanger Bridge will be among of the longest suspension bridges in the world, even longer than the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco, with a total suspension-span of 1310 meters and will significantly improve the connection between Norway’s two largest cities (Oslo and Bergen). Norphonic was awarded

The American Transportation Research Institute (ATRI) has released findings from the first phase of a three-part research effort aimed at mitigating costly large truck rollovers. ATRI has produced a database of locations with the highest frequency of large truck rollovers using over 50,000 crash records over a nine-year period. The database, which covers 31 states, provides valuable insight into the location of high frequency rollover locations to both public transportation officials and the trucking indust

A new report examines how aggressive government belt-tightening and financial market deleveraging restrained worldwide infrastructure investments for 2012 and probably for the next five years. In the US, for instance, Infrastructure2012: Spotlight on Leadership, released by the Urban Land Institute (ULI) and Ernst & Young, says that constrained public budgets and a growing recognition at the local level of the importance of infrastructure, combined with lack of action at the federal level, are causing state

The new hydrogen plant of speciality oil company Nynas has been inaugurated in Nynäshamn, Sweden, by County Governor Per Unckel. The SEK 800 million (E85.4 million) investment safeguards the refinery's supply of hydrogen and lays the foundations for future expansion. Next year Nynas will be switching its raw material for the production of hydrogen to natural gas, reducing the company's carbon dioxide emissions by 20,000tonnes/year.

German company HUESKER, which specialises in geosynthetics for the construction industry and textiles for industrial and agricultural applications, is celebrating its 150th birthday this year. The business concept of the classical cotton weaving mill was originally founded by H & J Huesker & Co in December 1861. In 2010, the International Geosynthetics Society committee presented HUESKER with the IGS Award for the development of high-strength geosynthetic reinforcements from innovative raw materials.

Joanna Oliver, the Construction Equipment Association’s (CEA) Director of Global Programmes, has been awarded an MBE [Most Excellent Order of the British Empire] in the Queen’s Birthday Honours list. She is one of a select few recipients recognised for their services to industry, and is rewarded for over 16 years of promoting UK exports.

Construction work is due to start soon in south Germany on the upgrades to 41km of the A8 autobahn at a cost in the order of e305 million. Work will include widening the road to six lanes between Augsburg-West and Neu-Ulm. The project is being carried out under the public private partnership (PPP) model, and is due for completion in September, 2015.

The tender process to construct a €1.3 billion highway project in the Bosnian autonomous entity of Republika Srpska is underway and will be open until 2 September, 2011. Bosnia's Ministry of Transport has held talks with a total of five companies so far. The highway will run from Glamocani through Banja Luka and to the town of Mrkonjic.