News

The tremendous growth in the amount of available weather and road condition information—including devices that gather weather information, models and forecasting tools for predicting weather conditions, and electronic devices used by travellers — has led the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) to develop effective and specific guidelines for communicating road weather information in a way that is consistent with what travellers need, want, and will use when making travel decisions.

The Sanef Group has made a healthy offer to CS for the acquisition of its intelligent transportation system (ITS) operations. The deal relates specifically to the ITS Business Unit, which employs approximately 220 people and recorded a revenue of € 31.4 million in 2011. Sanef is a global service road infrastructure provider, focussing on mobility.

KPI-JCI & Astec Mobile Screens took part in the recent M&T Expo in São Paulo, Brazil as part of a newly-established joint venture called Astec Agregados E Mineracao do Brasil between its parent corporation, Astec Industries, and MDE, a KPI-JCI & Astec Mobile Screens authorised dealership in Brazil. The company showcased its GT200DF, a trackmounted cone plant.

Xylem has opened a new sales and service office in Panama to provide greater customer support to the developing Latin American market. The water technology company, focused on addressing the world’s most challenging water issues, says the expansion reflects its commitment to expansion within emerging markets. The company’s Flygt and Godwin pumps are already being used for the Panama Canal expansion project for dredging and construction works.

A leading road safety campaigner has urged the UK government to show “much greater leadership” on the issue after new Department for Transport (DfT) figures revealed a rise in pedestrians, cyclists, and motorcyclists killed or seriously injured on Britain’s roads. The number of cyclists killed or seriously injured (KSI) on UK roads between April 1 and June 30, 2012 rose 13% to 700, compared to 621 over the same three months of 2011.

Lithuanian forwarding company Finejas, one of the biggest in the Baltic area, is receiving the first of the 100 ordered Kögel Cargo platform trailers via Kögel’s general importer for Lithuania, UAB Transuore. Kögel says the Cargo offers low tare weight, large available volume and a high vertical load.

Yenisey River at US$394.7 million. The Krasnoyarsk-based Trasmost offered a bid of $450.6 million for the work while another Krasnoyarsk-based firm Sibiryak submitted a tender of $453.9 million for the bridge. This will be the fourth road bridge spanning the Yenisey River in Krasnoyarsk. All three companies said that the work will take 40 months to complete.

Italian company Barin has supplied bridge inspection equipment in China. The model ABC 60/l belongs to the automatic bridge control range and the deal was handled by Barin’s distributor company in Hong Kong, New Motion. The skid unit machine, mounted on a two-axle Nissan truck chassis, was shipped in a container in pieces and then reassembled locally. The unit, made of aluminium alloy, is an underbridge platform-type machine with a maximum undebridge working length of 6m, and has a total payload of 300kg.

A new range of Doosan wheeled loaders has been launched for markets in the Middle East and Africa region. Building on the design of the previous Mega range, the new Doosan DL250A, DL300A and DL420A wheeled loaders offer several improvements.

Internationally renowned academic José Viegas of Portugal has begun work as the new chief executive of International Transport Forum (ITF), the global transport policy body. The ITF is an intergovernmental organisation with 54 member countries that acts as a strategic think tank for global transport policy and organises an annual summit of transport ministers.

A leading global construction and mining machine industry showcase event being held in 2013 has nearly booked out its exhibition space – despite a 50% extension. Organisers of the Bauma CONEXPO show bC India 2013, which will cover 150,000m2 of exhibition space compared to 88,000m2 in 2011, say they have drawn up a waiting list for some sections of the event being held from February 5 to 8, 2013, at the Bandra Kurla Complex in Mumbai.

Intelligent Transport Systems Australia is calling for entries for its 2012 National ITS Awards. Launched in 2010 to recognise and celebrate the achievements of Australia's ITS industry, ITS Australia president and chair of the Awards Judging Panel Brian Negus said competition for the Awards has been strong from academia and the infrastructure, transport and vehicle manufacturing industries.

The most expensive highway ever built in Nevada will open before the end of August to a storm of protest. The new 13.7km Interstate 580 three-lane motorway, which is reported to have cost more than US $0.5 billion to construct, has been dubbed a vanity project by local politicians.

The number of Heavy Goods Vehicles travelling through Carlisle’s city centre is estimated to have been reduced by more than a third since the new multi-million euro Carlisle Northern Development Route opened in February 2012.

Organisers of the 12th Beijing International Construction Machinery Exhibition and Seminar (BICES 2013) say they expect to attract over 1,500 exhibitors to the event. Being held at Beijing Jiuhua International Exhibition Centre from 15th to 18th October, 2013, and themed ‘Pre-emptive Opportunity, Value of Innovation, Sustain Future Growth’, BICES 2013 is earmarked to cover 230,000㎡ of floor space.