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The Tamil Nadu state government in southern India aims to build a 162km-road connecting Chennai suburb Ennore and the town of Mamallapuram. State chief minister Jayaram Jayalalithaa said a detailed report on the US$266.62million peripheral road project will be carried out soon. Meanwhile, the state government said it intends to upgrade all 78.6kms of existing roads, while another 83.2km of roads will also be laid soon.

Chile's Public Works minister Laurence Golborne has announced plans to invest US$ 500million to improve roads in the eastern part of Santiago. The first of eight separate projects to ease traffic in that part of the city will begin in October 2012. The works will include a tunnel under Mapoco River connecting Costanera Norte and the Central motorway, two new bridges over Manquehue and Kennedy Avenue and works on La Concepcion exit. The Perez Zujovic roundabout will be eliminated through works about to start

The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) is providing a loan worth €50 million to help with the rehabilitation of regional and local roads as well as the modernisation and improvement of transport infrastructure in Albania. This EBRD loan will be used to improve to 500km of roads in rural areas of Albania. The European Investment Bank (EIB) will provide a loan for the same amount for the project. The project is also supported by €33 million in grant financing from the European Commission

Cofiroute USA, which automated toll roads in the United States with the 91 Express Lanes in Orange County, California, has launched a new consulting division to work with public agencies, contractors and others in developing plans for new toll roads or converting existing high-occupancy vehicle (HOV) lanes to high-occupancy toll (HOT) lanes.

Official approval is now being given for changes to the agreement between the Bulgarian authorities and the European Investment Bank (EIB) for the second Danube bridge project. So far the EIB is providing €50 million, with €5 million having already been used. The Bulgarian authorities are agreeing to accept a shorter loan period of 14.5 years rather than the 17-year term originally agreed with the EIB.

JCB has won one of the biggest single tenders in its history with an order for more than 1,000 machines worth over US$96.4million from the Brazilian Government. The UK-headquartered company beat off competition from other major global manufacturers to secure the deal for the fleet of backhoe loaders, which will be used to improve the road infrastructure in the country. The first 114 of the 1,016 backhoes have now been delivered and the keys to one of the first machines handed over by Brazilian President Dil

The Government of Federal Bosnia & Herzegovina plans to invest e5.5 billion in building roads, highways and new energy projects. To achieve this programme a new consortium will be set-up to secure part of the necessary capital, while part will be financed by strategic partners. The authorities are also working on plans for construction of the Corridor 5c highway.

A substantial budgetary shortfall has been identified for repairs to roads in the Walloon Region of Belgium that €1 billion is needed to carry out necessary repairs to roads in the region. However the previous local administration had budgeted €600 million for the work.

Questions are being asked over the construction of a new section of the A1 autobahn in Germany. The highway stretch is being scrutinised due to surface failures and lies close to the city of Bremen but has been open for less than three months.

New data from The Co-operative Insurance in the UK says that new data shows that the introduction of telematics technology is leading to better driving behaviour from Britain's young road users. Intelligence gathered from the company’s 'smartbox' scheme shows that 35 per cent are consistently showing 'excellent' driving while less than five per cent demonstrate 'poor' driving habits.

Italian highway concessionaire ANAS is giving the go-ahead to a string of key projects that will improve the country’s road network. The tender process for the Novara bypass will start shortly and this will improve the Turin-Milan route. The work is expected to cost around €116 million but may be split into two contracts.

A major milestone has been achieved in New Zealand on a major road project that is intended to deal with a major traffic bottleneck in the city of Auckland. The launching gantry team has now installed the last segment of the new northbound viaduct, a key stage in the Newmarket Viaduct Replacement project. There is currently a 1.5m gap between the segments. So, on Saturday 3rd and Sunday 4th December the two viaducts will be cemented together in an 18 hour procedure known as the Stitch. From then until the e

Costs are climbing for Catalonia’s Eix de la Conreria highway project in Spain. The B-500 project is now expected to cost €400 million, a jump of €30 million from the previous estimate made just six months ago. The new link will connect Barcelona with Baix Maresme and Valles and the start of work on the project is also now expected to be delayed until 2012. The project requires the construction of four lanes with two running in either direction and is at present in the design and environmental assessment s

The UK’s Department for Transport (DfT) is introducing new rules that boost fines for companies that delay road works. The fines jump by a factor of ten from £2,500/day (€2,775/day) to £25,000/day (€27,750/day).

Three trees provided by Siemens have been planted in Southampton’s prestigious QE2 mile as part of the carbon offset programme included in the new traffic signals maintenance contract awarded to the company by Southampton City Council. Southampton's traffic signal engineer, Martin Wylie said: “We are working with Siemens on a number of initiatives to reduce the carbon emissions associated with our Intelligent Transport Systems.

A resolution drafted by Mathieu Grosch and adopted yesterday by the EU transport committee calls for the abolition of all remaining barriers and borders in order to complete the creation of a single transport area for goods and passengers which is competitive, co-modal and resource efficient. The vote reflects a broad political consensus on the main safety and environmental targets to be reached by 2020.

According to a Belgian police report, speed cameras cannot read licence plates correctly in the dark unless they are near to street lights. The report follows tests carried out between 10 and 21 January 2010 on the two most commonly used speed cameras in Belgium. The report also found that speed cameras are able to read yellow licence plates with black lettering more easily than other types of plates, such as the white plate with white background and red letters chosen by Belgium.

Nissan North America is bringing an innovative, low-cost DC quick charger for electric cars to the US market as part of a global collaboration with Sumitomo Corporation, with the first installations planned for early 2012. The companies also announced that they are looking to Nissan North America's preferred home charging station partner AeroVironment to be their wholesale and retail distributor, as well as the preferred provider for US installation services.

A report by Norway’s Public Roads Administration (Vegvesenet) indicates that a large proportion of the country’s trunk roads have either bad or very bad surfacing. The data shows that one-third of the country’s trunk road network is in poor condition and requires repair.

Bidding is healthy for a section of dual carriageway in Poland linking Kurow with Lublin. The section is 60km long and has been divided by the Polish General Directorate for National Roads and Motorways (GDDKiA) into five separate bids.