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Data from a new government report show that if all the structurally deficient bridges in the United States were placed end-to-end, it would take 25 hours to cross them while driving at 100km/h. The total distance is around 2,500km, roughly the distance between Boston and Miami. The Washington, DC-based American Road & Transportation Builders Association (ARTBA) is highlighting these findings in a new analysis of US bridge conditions. ARTBA has a list of the top 250 structurally deficient US bridges, state r

The Latvian Ministry of Transport plans to spend more than €135 million upgrading 300 road bridges across Latvia by 2020. According to the Ministry, Latvia's national road network includes only 196 bridges that are in good condition and 223 bridges in a satisfactory condition. As much as 55% of all 943 bridges in Latvia are said to be in poor or very poor condition.

Slovak national motorway company NDS has chosen the consortium consisting of fellow Slovak construction company Duha and Salini Impregilo of Italy as the winner of the public procurement tender to build a 13km stretch of the D1 motorway. The Lietavska Lucka-Visnove-Dubna Skala stretch of Slovakia’s D1 includes the 7.5km long Visnove tunnel and is a tender worth nearly €410 million. It is expected that Skanska and Doprastav, which were excluded from the competition, will appeal against NDS' tender award dec

Universal LRT Corp (ULC), the concessionaire for the MRT-7 Light Rail and Road Project in the Philippines, is expected to commence works on the project this year. ULC has said that the proposed investment in the project, due for completion by mid-2018, has been increased from US$1.24 billion to $1.54 billion. Works will be undertaken by Marubeni of Japan. A 22km six-lane highway from San Jose del Monte City to North Luzon Expressway will form a key part of the project.

Road safety in the Middle East continues to decline, according to the latest data available. There were 945,000 road crashes in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) in 2012, a rise from the 853,700 in 2011 according to a recent study. Saudi Arabia and Qatar have particularly poor records for road safety. Saudi Arabia had 589,258 crashes in 2012 while Qatar had 252,614 crashes in the same period. In particular, Saudi Arabia is said to have 19.1 road fatalities/day, on average, based on figures from the General

In a bid to reduce costs, increase pavement quality, and minimise travel delays caused by road construction, the US Federal Highway Administration (FHWA), the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO), and the Transportation Research Board (TRB) are to help agencies implement a tool that allows contractors to identify concrete pavement surface irregularities during construction. Real-time pavement smoothness has been selected for guided implementation under the second Stra

Although the pace of growth on the Chinese market is slower than previous years, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) is still predicting China’s GDP to expand by 7.3% in 2014. Organisers of this year’s keenly awaited bauma China exhibition have noted this positive growth forecast and say it is reflected in the near 2,200 exhibitors who have already signed up to showcase their products during the event in Shanghai from November 25-28. The exhibitor figure is around 200 more than at the same point ahead of

The European Parliament has voted to support revised rules on the dimensions of heavy goods vehicles aimed at enabling manufacturers to produce safer lorries. The legislation will, it is claimed, create cabs with improved visibility, reducing the risk of accidents involving pedestrians and cyclists in urban areas. Antonio Avenoso, executive director of the European Transport Safety Council (ETSC), said, “This legislation is a step forward because it will enable innovative new designs that include crumple