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Russia’s road building programme looks set to be cut due to economic issues - Eugene Gerden writes The Russian Government is considering a significant cut to the existing road building programme for the current year. This is due to a current economic crisis in the country, caused by Western sanctions as well as a collapse in the price of oil and gas.

In Azerbaijan an Astec batching plant is said to be giving a major contractor an advantage over its competition The firm, Aztikintiyol, is one of the leading producers of aggregates and hot-mix asphalt in Azerbaijan and decided to expand its operations into the southern regions of the country. The need for asphalt in this area was growing as there is massive infrastructure development close to the border with neighbouring Iran taking place. However a simple plant was not suitable as the firm required

The Detroit River is short, only 45km, and narrow in places, less than 1km. Around a quarter of the annual $658 billion Canada-US trade crosses over the river. That’s $160 billion worth of goods trucked each year between Detroit in the US state of Michigan and the Canadian city of Windsor in the province of Ontario - the Windsor-Detroit Corridor. There are several types of crossings, but the vast majority of commercial traffic must use the 2.3km Ambassador Bridge (see box). A new bridge was initially prop

No sooner had senior managers told a roomful of journalists that corporate restructuring is on track, news followed that Volvo Group’s chief executive had been replaced Olof Persson fell from his perch following pressure from shareholders' dissatisfaction over the group’s weak financial performance in recent years. Volvo group plans to appoint Scania’s head Martin Lundstedt to the role staring in October. Until then, Volvo Group’s chief financial officer Jan Gurander will be standing in. Lundstedt and G

The security and safety of the EU’s key infrastructure is a major issue and requires Pan-European agreement Critical infrastructure, such as highways, energy lines or pipelines, may spread over large areas covering wide geographic zones. There is clearly a need to provide proper security for such infrastructure against illicit actions and against incidents that may escalate to crises. As a result, developing 24/7 surveillance systems for the security of Wide Zones (with multiple assets at localised scale

Now in its second year and sixth edition, the IRF’s flagship technical journal has become a valuable global knowledge resource for road practitioners on the state of the art across road disciplines. “The wealth of knowledge accumulated during the 17th IRF World Meeting & Exhibition in Riyadh was the driving force behind our decision to launch the IRF Examiner as a freely available resource for the industry,” recalls IRF chairman Eng Abdullah Al-Mogbel.

The IRF has partnered with a key Chinese summit, focussing on capacity building for the new Silk Road project. During the three day International Highway Technology Summit, billed as China’s largest and most influential highway knowledge platform, the International Road Federation chaired a flagship multi-country panel discussion on China's new Silk Road Economic Belt programme. In addition, the IRF organised training workshops on forgiving roads and asset management applications. The event drew together

Demand within the global construction equipment manufacturing industry is anything but homogenous, with certain countries and sales regions significantly outperforming others, with a whole host of factors fuelling and suppressing each key market - Guy Woodford reports

Mexico, Indonesia, Nigeria, Turkey – Global Report offers up some food for thought about where smart money might be headed within the next several years – David Arminas writes China’s rate of growth may be slowing down, but other South East Asian companies are being quick to offer alternate investment opportunities, notably Indonesia. Nigeria, too, has had issues with security of investment. But there are signs that the government may be getting serious at last about tightening up rules and regulation