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As heavy rain storms continue to batter the Chinese capital, Beijing, the number of collapsed road pavements has soared to record levels, according to the city's road and bridge maintenance authority. Since the start of the flooding on July 21 until mid-August, Beijing Municipal Bridge Maintenance Management Group, a State-owned business set up to repair the city’s bridges and roads, received nearly 300 emergency calls regarding collapsed road surfaces.

The Federal Government of Nigeria gave the go-ahead for work to start on the planning and design of a new Niger bridge. The country’s leaders have approved a US$2 million (Nigerian Naira N325 million) “transactional advisory services” contract to assess how to design and build, finance and operate a “Second Niger Bridge.” Contractor Roughton International Limited has been given 16 months to come back with a detailed schedule of how to progress.

UK-based Milton Keynes Council is to borrow €64 million (£50 million) for a new road repair programme to tackle the city’s “decaying" roads and pavements. The 1960’s new town, which is located about an hour’s drive north of London, has approved a plan which includes more than €27 million (£21 million) for vital road repair work, €18 million (£14 million) to tackle its ageing bridges and more than €9 million (£7 million) to restore the council’s pavement and footpath network.

Bids are now being offered for a major highway project in Bonsia. This follows the opening of the tender process for the project by Bosnian highway company Autoputevi Republike Srpske (ARS). The project is located in the autonomous entity Republika Srpska and is for construction of the Doboj-Vukosavlje highway. The project will be carried out under the public and private partnership model and will form part of the European Corridor Vc. The package includes financing, construction, management and maintenance

A new stretch of highway is now open to traffic in Nepal. The Nepalthok-Khurkot Road recently had its official opening. Some US$46.2 million was spent on the section of highway, with much of the funding being provided by the Japanese Government. The Nepalthok-Khurkot section of road forms part of a larger project and is Phase 3, Part-I of the Banepa-Sindhuli-Bardibas BP highway.

AVERY Weigh-Tronix, one of the world’s biggest suppliers of weighing equipment and solutions, has completed the takeover of UK-based weighing specialists Central Weighing. Peggi Trimble, general manager, industrial division for Avery-Weigh-Tronix (AWT), said the acquisition would give AWT the opportunity to expand its “global reach” and “bring added-value, innovative products to the market by leveraging existing distribution networks”.

There is caution but no catastrophe in the European construction equipment sales market, according to Volvo Construction Equipment (CE) EMEA sales president Tomas Kuta. Speaking at a press conference to launch Volvo CE’s PL3005D pipelayer, and ahead of the in-port race of the Volvo Ocean Race in Lorient, France, Kuta said: “Europe is not a catastrophe. Our Quarter 1 (2012) results were very much driven by Europe, but it’s the outlook that is so uncertain. “We (Volvo CE) have seen good development in the no

Up to US$536 million has been offered by the Canadian Government towards the $974 million construction of the Detroit River International Crossing Bridge. This will link Windsor, Ontario and the US city of Detroit. The construction of the bridge is due for completion by 2016.

Europe will emerge as the most competitive regional market for hybrid and electric medium-heavy trucks and buses, globally, according to Frost & Sullivan. This will be particularly true for the transit bus segment, which is expected to experience proliferation of competitors, both on the original equipment manufacturer (OEM) and supplier side.