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A new project aims to bring Europe to the forefront of developing the future of transport. A three-year project has set itself the challenge of developing a "truly inspiring vision" of how roads will be built and maintained in the 21st century. Forever Open Road is a revolutionary concept led by the Forum of European National Highway Research Laboratories (FEHRL) and supported by the UK's influential TRL (Transport Research Laboratory).

While international diplomatic negotiations on how to tackle climate change are faltering, the International Road Federation (IRF) is taking action and leading the way to meet calls for greener transport systems

An innovative asphalt plant is allowing the use of recycled materials and achieving major cost benefits - Mike Woof reports. UK construction firm FM Conway is seeing the benefit of the €11.5 million (£10 million) it has invested in its asphalt production facilities at Erith in Kent, close to UK capital London, since buying the site in 2005. The biggest single investment in the facility has been a new Benninghoven asphalt plant, which was commissioned in June 2010 and is now the core of the Erith operation.

Innovative formwork systems have been used to construct a variety of bridge structures. Patrick Smith reports. As part of the work on Germany's new A4 autobahn near Eisenach, the contracting joint venture awarded the formwork contract for two of the three viaducts to Doka. What makes this assignment so special to the company is that although the two steel composite bridges each have very different cross-sections, the JV is using the same overslung composite forming carriage to pour the carriageway slabs of

Developed in 1933 by the French engineer M Rouaze, the Atomix(r) mill is now used by many customers across five continents and is able to make all types of emulsions including SBR [styrene butadiene rubber] and SBS [styrene-butadiene-styrene].

Innovative formwork solutions are helping to get projects completed on or before time, meaning savings in time and money as Patrick smith reports. The use of flexible, modular formwork to create innovative structures out of concrete is helping to increase productivity and thus drive down completion time and costs.

Companies are coming up with innovative formwork solutions to overcome "challenging" designs for bridges. Patrick Smith reports

A survey of a number of Europe's motorway filling stations have thrown up surprising results: some good, some bad. Experts from EuroTest have travelled almost 34,000km to check out 77 filling stations along the most important travel routes in Europe. Keeping a close eye on cameras and staff that might "blow their cover," the results they brought home with them showed that not a single facility [visited] warranted a very good rating.

An authority replaces container wharf pavement damaged by forklift loads in world's first commercial use of high-performance asphalt base course. By Paul Fournier

The International Road Federation's (IRF) conference in Portuguese capital Lisbon was a major success, attracting 1,500 industry professionals from all over the world