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Robert W Poole, director of transportation policy at Reason Foundation is publishing a new book, Rethinking America’s Highways, suggesting a new strategy for the sector. The book provides “A 21st-Century Vision for Better Infrastructure,” according to Poole, offering solutions for dealing with the country’s poor highway condition. His suggestion is for “a new model that treats highways like public utilities”, with drivers paying for their use. The books argues for highway spending to be directed by economic

Bentley Systems is acquiring Plaxis, a Netherlands-based provider of geotechnical software. In addition, Bentley also has an agreement to acquire soil engineering software provider SoilVision, based in Saskatchewan, Canada. The acquisitions develop Bentley’s capabilities in the geotechnical sector. These deals allow BIM advancements to be extended to subsurface engineering for infrastructure projects. Projects commence with geotechnical surveys and sampling, captured with Bentley’s gINT for versatile

New crash data from New Zealand points to a worrying trend for car occupants. In around 30% of fatal crashes, lack of seatbelt use is a primary factor in occupant deaths. An analysis of 200 fatal crashes in which occupants were not using seatbelts shows that 75% of those killed were male. Meanwhile 84% of the incidents occurred on rural roads. Many of those killed were young drivers while alcohol also played a role in many of the incidents. Research suggests that around 90% of vehicle occupants in New

A loan package from the World Bank will help pay for a major rural road programme in India. The US$210 million loan is being used for rural road development in Madhya Pradesh State. The upgrade work will see a total of 10,000km of gravels roads in Madhya Pradesh State being surfaced with asphalt, while a further 510km of new rural roads will be built in the state and will be surfaced with asphalt. This will be for the Madhya Pradesh Rural Connectivity Project.

Giatec’s Smart Concrete concept allows ready mix concrete suppliers to offer optimised mixes to their customers – and to charge more for them. Giatec, which makes concrete sensors and associated software and apps, works with the concrete producers to calibrate their mixes. The concrete company then supplies Giatec’s maturity monitoring sensors as part of the concrete package. “The ready mix suppliers get information straight away so that they can adjust their mixes if necessary,” says Giatec business

Giatec’s Smart Concrete concept allows ready mix concrete suppliers to offer optimised mixes to their customers – and to charge more for them. Giatec, which makes concrete sensors and associated software and apps, works with the concrete producers to calibrate their mixes. The concrete company then supplies Giatec’s maturity monitoring sensors as part of the concrete package. “The ready mix suppliers get information straight away so that they can adjust their mixes if necessary,” says Giatec business

Italian manufacturer Socage has modified its 75TJJ aerial platform so that the basket has a greater range of movement. Whereas previously all four stabilising legs were set perpendicular to the body of the vehicle, the front stabilisers now pivot so that they can be placed at an angle, if required. “You can change the position, depending on where you are working and it also increases the reach of the boom towards the front of the machine,” explains Socage marketing manager Giulia Bigini. Socage has also ma