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Topcon Europe Positioning says that Topcon Positioning Systems (TPS, Livermore, California, USA) has acquired InlandGEO, one of Topcon’s top performing distributors. InlandGEO is headquartered in Madrid, Spain, and has four additional offices in Spain, two in Portugal and one in the Canary Islands. In addition to continuing to distribute Topcon and Sokkia positioning products to the construction and survey markets in Spain and Portugal, InlandGEO will become the headquarters for distribution and support fo

A LEGAL dispute is now underway in Russia over the St Petersburg ring road project. Construction company Flora was awarded a €187.6 million contract for an 11km section of the ring road in 2008, winning the tender by making the lowest bid. However, the Russian authorities have taken the contract for this section of the ring road away from Flora claiming it did not meet set targets. Flora is disputing the loss of the contract with the authorities.

A STUDY of highway construction costs in eight European countries highlights Austria as the most expensive. The report says that highways in Austria cost €12.87 million/km. The next most expensive country is Hungary at €11.21 million/km, followed by Slovakia at €9.56 million/km and then the Czech Republic at €8.86 million/km.

Kenya's highway network is to benefit from a tie-up with the Iranian Government. The new Rumuruti-Maralal road will be built using funding sourced by the Iranian Government. The 121km road is expected to cost some US$100 million.

The Inter-American Development Bank (IADB) is providing funding worth US$1.14 billion for construction work on the north section of Sao Paulo's orbital highway. The Brazilian city is at the heart of the country's growing economy and traffic congestion has been a problem in the area. The work will commence in 2011 and is due for completion in 2014. The local authorities will need to find a further $1.82 billion however.

The Indian Government has granted approvals for 32 highway construction projects during the 2009-2010 financial year. These routes have a total length of 3,600km but this falls below the targeted 126 projects stretching for a total of 11,928km in total for this time period. For the 2010-2011 financial year, the plan is to build highways totalling in excess of 15,000km.

Work is being planned on Melbourne's M80 ring road upgrade. This A$2.25 billion project is intended to cut congestion at peak periods, boost safety and reduce journey times for commuters and freight traffic. The project is due for completion in 2013 with some of the work already underway. The work includes an extra lane being installed on either side of the road between Sunshine Avenue and Furlong Road as well as widening of the freeway bridge over Furlong Road.