Features

Preserving the unspoiled Mullum Mullum Valley was the major consideration when deciding to build a traffic tunnel The answer to one of the major issues facing construction of the A$2.5 billion EastLink route in Australia was simple: construct a tunnel. While it was expensive, those involved realised they had little option but to go underground to protect the environmentally sensitive Mullum Mullum Valley, an untouched area of wood and bushland in Melbourne. EastLink, the 39km toll road project on the easter

Sandvik is rolling out a range of sophisticated tunnelling jumbo drilling rigs, equipped with advanced automation features. The new DTi models feature wide coverage and powerful HX5T drifters that enable them to carry out large and small and tunnelling jobs. To optimise operation, the four machines can use Sandvik's latest iSURE software, which allows blasting operations to be designed on a PC and then downloaded onto the rigs using conventional USB memory sticks: this allows full automation of the face dri

A major tunnel project in the Swedish capital Stockholm will mean that roads in a residential area will be safe from workmen repairing power cables. The tunnel will not be visible when completed, but its importance to the city's development is considerable. It means 10km of high voltage cable cutting through a residential area will be replaced with cables laid through the new tunnel, providing sufficient land for some 3,000 badly-needed new homes in an area divided down the middle by Lake Mälaren and the Ba

In 2002, bridge conditions in the State of Oregon were declining. Projections were made that 30% of Oregon's bridges would have weight restriction within 8-years, causing a productivity loss to Oregon's economy of US$123 billion including 88,000 jobs. By 2012, Oregon’s State Bridge Delivery Program had been recognized nationally and internationally with awards for excellence and innovation, most recently scooping IRF’s Global Road Achievement Award for Quality Management.

According to World Health Organisation figures, 307 lives were lost in over 13,000 road accidents in 2011, a figure dominated by male drivers and car occupants. Buoyed by IRF’s Safer Road by Design seminar which preceded the Congress, the Road Safety Unit in the Jamaican Ministry of Transport, Works and Housing is already taking steps to address the presence of turned-down ends and concrete utility poles on the country’s roadsides.

The Ministry of Transport, Works, and Housing of Jamaica is the first recipient of the "IRF Decade of Action Find A Way” Award, an annual competition instituted by IRF Washington Chairman Abdullah Al-Mogbel to recognises outstanding personal commitment to safer roads by national, regional, or city government. Under the leadership of Dr Omar Davies, the ministry has overseen an ambitious regulatory overhaul and infrastructure improvement program within the framework of the national “Save 300 Lives” campaign

World events are driving the new focus on fuel economy for diesel engine development Spiralling fuel prices have put a new spin on technological developments in the engine and driveline sector. Recent legislation has been pushing manufacturers to develop cleaner running engines that are quieter and offer drastic reductions in exhaust emissions. For the engine and driveline manufacturers, research and development aimed at reducing engine fuel consumption is in hand but the market conditions have placed fresh