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More than 630 items will go under the hammer during Ritchie Bros first ever industrial auction at its new Donington Park site in the East Midlands region of England. Starting at 9am on Tuesday April 17, the unreserved public auction will include more than 180 excavators, 70 dumpers, 43 tandem rollers, 39 telescopic forklifts, a number of wheel and backhoe loaders and many other machines for construction and agricultural industry use.

French firm Bolloré has developed an innovative lithium metal polymer (LMP) battery. This is the result of a 15 year research and development process. Low levels of interest by OEMs in the new system encouraged Bolloré to launch its own electric vehicle featuring this battery. Called the Bluecar, the vehicle is now available in Paris through the autolib scheme. The aim of the project is to have 1,100 rental stations, 3,000 Bluecars and 6,600 charging stations in 47 areas in the great Paris area.

A US$137.6 million investment is being targeted at the Pan Borneo Highway connecting the Malaysian states of Sarawak and Sabah. This investment will be supplied by Malaysia’s Federal Government. Overtaking lanes will be built at critical locations along the 207km stretch linking Bintulu and Miri as well as the 217km stretch connecting Bintulu and Sibu.

Michelin North America (MNA) has revealed plans for a new earthmover tyre plant in the United States as part of a $750million expansion set to create up to 500 manufacturing jobs. News of the proposed new site in Anderson County, South Carolina, comes after MNA revealed they would also be expanding their existing earthmover tyre plant in Lexington, also in South Carolina.

Work on Indonesia’s new Kartasura-Kebakkramat toll road is due for completion in 2014. The Public Works Ministry expects to complete the land acquisition process during this year. The budget for the project has not been disclosed so far. When it is complete, the 22km toll road project will connect with the Kertosono (East Java)-Surakarta (Central Java) toll road.

Sweden’s National Road and Transport Research Institute (VTI) is publishing a new report showing ways to improve road safety. Of note is the fact that the report does not recommend a ban on mobile phone use while driving. Instead, VTI believes that a package measures can train and support drivers to manage communications more safety. According to VTI, this will be more effective than a ban on the use of cell phones at the wheel. VTI claims that more information will enable drivers to understand when it is d

Delays in the award process will see awards for major road projects in Colombia. The road authority Invias has said it is holding back the award of road projects forming part of a concession package put until late April 2012. The contracts are for maintenance works on roads in various parts of Colombia. Bids have been placed bySolarte Solarte, Conalvias, Construcciones El Condor, Mario Alberto Huertas Cotes and Hidalgo e Hidalgo have submitted their own proposals for these projects. In all there are 16 sepa

Mexican construction firm Impulsora del Desarrollo y el Empleo en America Latina (Ideal) has won a major US$623.4 million contract to construct the Macrolibramiento de Guadalajara link in the country. This link is for a large-scale ring road in Mexico’s Guadalajara metropolitan zone.

Both France and Turkey have seen road safety improvements. In Turkey the latest data shows a slight fall in traffic accident fatalities. A recent National Police Department (NPD) research from Turkey indicates that over 10 people die/day in traffic accidents in the country. The research spans the period from 1985 to the end of 2011 and reveals that 3,440,635 were injured in traffic accidents and 152,468 people were killed. But by adding people who died in hospital afterwards, the death count is expected to

Work on Latvia’s E22 highway is now delayed. Called the Moscow highway, delays will afflict the Riga-Koknese section of the E22. The opening of this section now looks likely to be delayed until 2014. The initial deadline for the project was to be late 2012. Land issues held back widening work but there are now disputes between the local authorities and the contractor. The delay has left unfinished and unusable main road sections in various areas.