News

After a solid first quarter 2011, Strabag, Central and Eastern Europe’s largest construction company, has raised its outlook for the financial years 2011 and 2012. According to the new forecast, Strabag expects an output volume of €14 billion in 2011 (previous target €13.5 billion), with earnings before interest and taxes (EBIT) forecast to increase to €320 million, after €295 million had been predicted. For 2012, the company had expected an output volume of €13.7 billion and an EBIT of €300 million, whi

The European Quality Association (EQAR) held a congress on Recycling of Building Materials in Europe and concluded there is a need for action. Manfred Wierichs, president of EQAR, demanded intensified efforts for reaching more efficiency of resources in the field of mineral building materials. Jo Leinen, chairman of the Environment Committee of the European Parliament, speaking at the meeting in Brussels, Belgium,

The long tale of woe concerning Poland’s troubled A2 highway project looks set to continue with the latest developments in the case. The Chinese contractor China Overseas Engineering Group Co (Covec) is appealing against a decision made by the Polish national road authority GDDKiA. The Polish authorities cancelled the contract that COVEC had previously been awarded to build a section of the A2 highway between Warsaw and Lodz.

In a pilot study being carried out by the Department of Applied Environmental Science (ITM) at Stockholm University, four taxis have been equipped to measure pollution and particulate matter. Instruments fitted to the roof of the taxis undertakes measurements which are then cross referenced with the cars' GPS as they travel around Sweden's capital.

The Illinois Tollway is seeking firms to provide design, management and other technical services for 22 new contracts associated with the 15-year, US$12 billion capital programme Move Illinois: The Illinois Tollway Driving the Future.The contracts will provide for more than $200 million in services over the next five years for new projects including the Elgin O'Hare West Bypass, the Jane Addams Memorial Tollway (I-90) rebuild and widening and the Tri-State Tollway (I-294)/I-57 Interchange."In August, the Il

Car2go, a wholly owned subsidiary of Daimler North America Corporation, and the city of San Diego have officially launched North America's first all-electric car sharing network. Car2go began deploying 300 Smart fortwo electric drive vehicles Friday in San Diego, which are now in service and available for use.Unlike traditional car sharing schemes, Car2go says it meets the daily needs of members by providing a free-floating network of vehicles that is truly available on-demand for point-to-point trips.

An on-line link to the UK's accident statistics provides a chilling reminder of the country's road fatality rate. This gives a precise map of those killed on the nation's roads over the last 10 years. Some 32,955 have been killed and nearly 3 million people injured between 2000 and 2010. Transport data mapping specialist ITO World has revealed information gathered by the police in a dataset called Stats19, published by the Economic and Social Data Service.

Safety campaigners in Norway are proposing a novel approach to cutting road accident levels. With data showing that young male drivers account for a disproportionately high number of accidents, calls are being made for increased regulations in order to boost safety. Those suggesting the changes believe that tougher rules for young male drivers in the 18-24 age group would reduce the number of traffic accidents.Norway's accident data reveals that of road accidents involving fatalities, young men are the driv

Funding worth some €177.5 million from the European Commission (EC) will pay for a highway construction project in Romania. This non-refundable financing will pay for the construction of a 27.4km stretch of the Lugoj-Dumbrava highway. This section forms part of Lugoj-Deva highway that is itself a part of the Pan-European Corridor IV.

US-headquartered Brammo has announced that following extensive evaluation by multiple departments of the Hong Kong Government to explore the adoption of more electric vehicles for public sector use, it has selected Brammo electric motorcycles to replace existing conventional petrol motorcycles in the government fleet which have been in service for several years.The Brammo Enertia Plus motorcycles will be driven year-round by engineers in the water supplies department to reach district service locations, whi

Major developments are in hand with regard to providing charging solutions for electric vehicles. This has been seen as a barrier to the introduction of electric vehicles on a widespread basis but various manufacturers are now developing systems to deal with the issue.Siemens and BMW are working on an easy-to-use fast charging plug for electric cars. This system will allow sufficient charging for a 100km range in less than 30 minutes.

Forward bookings for the upcoming Intermat construction equipment exhibition in French capital Paris are extremely bullish. The organisers say that the show already has a 90% occupancy rate for its exhibition space, a full eight months before the 2012 event, which runs from 16h April to 21st April. The Intermat 2012 event will feature 375,000m2 of exhibition area, including a 20,000m2 outdoor demonstration area. In all 1,500 exhibitors have booked, 67% of whom are international and there will be four nation

Bidding is underway on the project to uprgade Montreal’s Turcot interchange, a project expected to be worth some US$3.02 billion (C$3 billion). Canadian construction contractor SNC-Lavalin has selected Louisbourg SBC as part of the Groupe Futur Turcot consortium that is bidding for the project. Infrastructure Quebec has released the names of all five bidders for the Turcot project. The interchange carries some 300,000 vehicles/day and is one of the busiest in the country.

West Bengal is to receive a US$748.08million grant from the Indian Government for two major road projects. Announcing the key grant, Union Minister for Rural Development Jairam Ramesh said one project would see the building of a new 4,000km road, while the other will see the conversion of 5,733km of existing murram-surfaced highway to asphalt surfaced highway.

Automotive manufacturer Ford is developing an electric bike prototype called the E-Bike. The firm is working on the concept as it believes that E-bikes may well sell in higher numbers than electric cars over the next decade. The frame is built from carbon fibre and aluminium, while sophisticated magnetostrictive sensors regulate precisely how the electric motor in the front wheel-hub, engages and assists the rider.