News

A new construction and mining equipment exhibition is being planned for South Africa, which will be held in September 2013. The event is being set up by Messe München and will be called bauma Africa and is said to attracting interest in the sector. The South African Construction and Mining Equipment Suppliers' Association (CONMESA) has said that it welcomes the first bauma Africa, the International Trade Fair for Construction Machinery, Building Material Machines, Mining Machines and Construction Vehicles.

A new 30km highway is planned for Lanzhou in China’s Gansu Province. The East-West highway will cost some US$263 million to build and is being constructed on a build-transfer basis. West Zhongda Construction Group has the contract for the deal, which is reported to have a buy-back period of six years.

The tender for the Northern section of Brazil’s Rodoanel highway in Sao Paulo is now going ahead. This was previously delayed due to legal complexities. Talks will be held with the Inter-American Development Bank (IADB) over a new deadline for potential builders to submit documentation. The road section must be completed by November 2014.

Official statistics available for the UK collated by the police show that during the 12 years to 2011, there were over 3,000,000 road casualties in Great Britain. During this 12 year period over 36,000 people died while a further 373,985 were seriously injured.

In Taiwan Hua Chi Construction will build the planned Kinmen Bridge. This 5.4km structure will connect Lesser Kinmen with Greater Kinmen and is due for completion in 2016. Construction work will commence in May 2012. The contractor’s winning bid was for US222.2 million. The details of the project have been released by the National Expressway Engineering Bureau.

Only two firms have submitted bids for the project to build six inner toll roads in Indonesia's capital, Jakarta. The US$4.4 billion project is expected to be developed in four phases. The 68km toll road project is thought to have generated less interest among bidders because of its high investment costs.

Strong interest is being shown in the coming Eurasphalt & Eurobitume Congress. Pavement durability and reduced temperature asphalt technologies are key topics of the Eurasphalt & Eurobitume Congress 2012, to be held this June in Istanbul from 13th-15th June 2012. This fifth Eurasphalt & Eurobitume Congress (E&E 2012) already has a strong line-up of speakers and delegates, with the programme being fine-tuned to meet expectations. Over 800 delegates are expected to attend the event, which will provide detaile

Indonesian firm Citra is to construct the South Metro Manila Skyway Stage 4 highway project and the Skyway Stage 3 project in the Philippines. In all Citra plans spending a total of US$1.5 billion on its works in the Philippines.

The authorities in India have given the go-ahead for a series of highway projects in the states of Tamil Nadu, Orissa and Rajasthan. These will be worth US$693.5 million and are being planned under the design, build, operate, finance and transfer (DBOFT) model. The National Highways Development Project (NHDP) will see upgrades to the Madurai-Ramanathapuram route in Tamil Nadu, the Chandikhole-Dubari-Talcher road in Orissa to four-lane section and a 79km section of the Gomati Chauraha-Udaipur road in Rajasth

New vehicle tax regulations have been passed in China, which are intended to boost the market for electric vehicles (EVs). A recent China State Council executive meeting passed the second draft regulations of China's Vehicle and Vessel Tax Law, a move designed to support the market for new energy vehicles.

Poland's most important infrastructure project of the past few years, a new 106 km section of the A2 motorway Segment II between Owiecko on the German border and Nowy Tomyol, opened this week, six months ahead of schedule.

The number of fatalities in traffic accidents in Spain has dropped by more than 50 per cent between 2001 and 2010 from 5,517 to 2,478. In total, the ten years saw 41,665 people lose their lives on Spanish roads while 205,774 were seriously injured.Stop Accidentes, a road safety association, has asked the new government to maintain a total commitment to keeping road safety a priority and to complete the Strategic Road Safety Plan 2011-2020 which had been on the previous government's agenda.

McCain has announced another successful contract for its ATC eX 2070 traffic signal controllers. The contract for the Virginia Department of Transportation (VDoT) includes more than 100 ATC 5.2b compliant controllers as well as a comparable number of 332 traffic controller cabinets, and underlines the importance of adhering to current standards.As McCain points out, advanced transportation controller (ATC) standards assist state and local governments in the early deployment of ITS technology in both urban a

The authorities in Morocco are now assessing 13 bids submitted in the tender for a new highway between El Jadida and Safi. The 141km road will cost some US$640 million to build. The project will be divided into four sections, the 20.6km El Jadida-Jorf Lasfar stretch, the 39.2km Jorf Lasfar-Sidi Smail stretch, the 38.85km Sidi Smail-Oualidia stretch and the 43.5km Oualidia-Safi stretch. The road will include six junctions and a toll barrier. The contract will be divided between the winning operators selected

French president Nicolas Sarkozy, during a ceremony highlighting road safety which rewards municipalities and departments for their efforts in the fight against road accidents, has announced that from spring next year, every car in France will have to carry a breathalyser.