News

Austrian construction firm STRABAG has won a major road contract from Poland’s General Directorate for National Roads and Highways (GDDKiA). The deal is for the construction of a 40km section of the S8 Expressway between Walichnowy and Sieradz Poùudnie, some 240km to the south west of capital Warsaw.

Haulotte Group (HG) increased its Q4 2011 sales by 13%, compared to the same period of 2010. The rise took consolidated October 1 to December 31 2011 sales to US$107.1million (€82.2 million) compared with $94.5million (€72.5million) in the same three months of last year.

Plans are in hand for major upgrades to Russia’s road network. Russian Highways (Avtodor) aims to construct 958km of roads, as well as to reconstruct 963km of road and improve 700km of road bed by 2019. The 684km M11 highway linking Moscow with St Petersburg is the top-priority. A 72km bypass road will be built in the Tver region.

Inge Zhou has been appointed as vice president of corporate communications for Volvo Construction Equipment newly formed China sales region. In her new role, Zhou will be based in Volvo CE's Shanghai office and report to regional president Laurence Luo. She will be responsible for all corporate communication activities within the region, as well as being a member of the China management team.

Serbia has managed to reduce the cost of building the Corridor 10 highway by €80 million. These funds will instead be used to pay for upgrades and improvements needed for the second section of the highway project, close to Neradovci. So far some 180km of the Corridor 10 highway has been built over a 40 month time frame. A further 150km of the highway has still to be built. Work on the Corridor 10 motorway is also being financed by the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development and the state budget. Wh

The Hertz Corporation has announced a new electric bicycle offering in several tourist areas of Spain following a successful launch in London earlier this year.Hertz customers in Spain now have a choice of nine different Swiss Flyer electric bikes available from 24 euros (US$32) a day.

The Swedish Road Administration (Transportstyrelsen) has extended the contract, announced on 27 October, 2010, appointing Q-Free to service and maintain the congestion charging infrastructure in Stockholm which was delivered by Q-Free in 2006.

The city of Sausalito, California, has deployed Streetline's smart parking platform, including its free smartphone app, Parker, giving the city's residents and visitors real-time insight for finding open parking spaces in this picturesque waterfront community.Available for iPhone, Android or compatible tablet, users see an instant map showing real-time availability of 530+ spaces along local streets and in parking lots, with icons noting more than four spaces available (plenty of parking available), more th

HTS (Hi-Tech Solutions), a specialist in the optical character recognition (OCR) and computer vision systems market, has established a wholly-owned US subsidiary, HTS Americas, based in New York, and named John Whiteman as its CEO.

Astec Industries is setting up Astec Mobile Machinery, which will be based at Hameln in Germany. The new facility will help the firm's international growth, particularly in Eastern Europe and Russia where the firm already has a strong sales presence and where road construction is strong at present.

Mexico's Government is launching the tender process for maintenance works to 734km of roads in the states of Mexico and Michoacan. The deal will be for a seven year period and this is the third of 43 tenders being launched by the Secretary of Transport and Communications (SCT)

Russia's state-owned company Avtodor has approved a massive new road development programme that stretches to 2019. The firm plans to build over 1,900km of roads, of which 1,200km will be tolled. Avtodor expects that its income will reach US$2.92 billion from the tolled roads. The investment programme will be jointly funded by state and private sources.

In Slovakia the new government is pledging to speed up the country’s highway construction programme. Suggested policies include a re-introduction of land expropriation. The Slovakian government's current priority is to complete the Bratislava - Kosice highway. The use of EU funds does not look likely for the project and instead, the PPP structure will probably be used to finance the work.

Sandvik Mining and Construction has bought Shanghai Jianshe Luqiao Machinery Co (SJL), a major Chinese manufacturer of crushing and screening equipment, which sells its products under the SHANBAO brand.