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Gomaco has just added an optional hydraulically-folding rear conveyor belt to its versatile 9500 material handling machine. The company says the new feature on the machine, which can take on work as a trimmer, concrete and asphalt placer, and a shoulder trimmer, makes it easier to transport. It allows the conveyor to remain attached to the 9500 during shipping. The 9500’s shipping length with the new folding rear conveyor is just 12.7metres. Shipping height is 3.5metres. The new conveyor belt is said by Gom

The European Quality Association (EQAR) held a congress on Recycling of Building Materials in Europe and concluded there is a need for action. Manfred Wierichs, president of EQAR, demanded intensified efforts for reaching more efficiency of resources in the field of mineral building materials. Jo Leinen, chairman of the Environment Committee of the European Parliament, speaking at the meeting in Brussels, Belgium,

Caterpillar says a new fume extraction system on its latest generation of Pavers will make working operations safer and more comfortable. The new system was recently demonstrated to customers at Caterpillar’s European paver facility at Minerbio in Italy. Independent French research is said by Caterpillar to show that a high percentage of fumes are removed or redirected from the leading construction firm’s new pavers, benefiting not only its operators but screed operators as well.

The long tale of woe concerning Poland’s troubled A2 highway project looks set to continue with the latest developments in the case. The Chinese contractor China Overseas Engineering Group Co (Covec) is appealing against a decision made by the Polish national road authority GDDKiA. The Polish authorities cancelled the contract that COVEC had previously been awarded to build a section of the A2 highway between Warsaw and Lodz.

In a pilot study being carried out by the Department of Applied Environmental Science (ITM) at Stockholm University, four taxis have been equipped to measure pollution and particulate matter. Instruments fitted to the roof of the taxis undertakes measurements which are then cross referenced with the cars' GPS as they travel around Sweden's capital.

The Illinois Tollway is seeking firms to provide design, management and other technical services for 22 new contracts associated with the 15-year, US$12 billion capital programme Move Illinois: The Illinois Tollway Driving the Future.The contracts will provide for more than $200 million in services over the next five years for new projects including the Elgin O'Hare West Bypass, the Jane Addams Memorial Tollway (I-90) rebuild and widening and the Tri-State Tollway (I-294)/I-57 Interchange."In August, the Il

A novel approach to utilities installation will lengthen the life of Helsinki's streets, reports Mike Woof. A major utilities project in Finnish capital Helsinki will offer huge benefits for the city's streets and traffic flow rates in years to come. A new tunnel system is being excavated under Helsinki for the power company Helsingin Energia, although this will be co-owned by the city. Called the Common Utility Tunnel (Meilahti-Pasilak-Käpylä LU2), the excavations form an extensive network spreading out un

Car2go, a wholly owned subsidiary of Daimler North America Corporation, and the city of San Diego have officially launched North America's first all-electric car sharing network. Car2go began deploying 300 Smart fortwo electric drive vehicles Friday in San Diego, which are now in service and available for use.Unlike traditional car sharing schemes, Car2go says it meets the daily needs of members by providing a free-floating network of vehicles that is truly available on-demand for point-to-point trips.

An on-line link to the UK's accident statistics provides a chilling reminder of the country's road fatality rate. This gives a precise map of those killed on the nation's roads over the last 10 years. Some 32,955 have been killed and nearly 3 million people injured between 2000 and 2010. Transport data mapping specialist ITO World has revealed information gathered by the police in a dataset called Stats19, published by the Economic and Social Data Service.

ECED's first Dealers' Conference in April during Intermat resulted in "a tremendous success and solid future outlook for the association". The president of the European Confederation of Equipment Distributors (ECED), Dr. José Gameiro, said the gravity of the current crisis is "the worst in the past 50 years, with a devastating effect on equipment distribution for public works and civil construction."

Safety campaigners in Norway are proposing a novel approach to cutting road accident levels. With data showing that young male drivers account for a disproportionately high number of accidents, calls are being made for increased regulations in order to boost safety. Those suggesting the changes believe that tougher rules for young male drivers in the 18-24 age group would reduce the number of traffic accidents.Norway's accident data reveals that of road accidents involving fatalities, young men are the driv

Funding worth some €177.5 million from the European Commission (EC) will pay for a highway construction project in Romania. This non-refundable financing will pay for the construction of a 27.4km stretch of the Lugoj-Dumbrava highway. This section forms part of Lugoj-Deva highway that is itself a part of the Pan-European Corridor IV.

A tricky utility supply project has been carried out in difficult conditions in Germany, without disturbing a village access road. The drilling work for the project was operated by boring contractor Beermann and the site was located on a plateau some 5km from the nearest village.

US-headquartered Brammo has announced that following extensive evaluation by multiple departments of the Hong Kong Government to explore the adoption of more electric vehicles for public sector use, it has selected Brammo electric motorcycles to replace existing conventional petrol motorcycles in the government fleet which have been in service for several years.The Brammo Enertia Plus motorcycles will be driven year-round by engineers in the water supplies department to reach district service locations, whi

Major developments are in hand with regard to providing charging solutions for electric vehicles. This has been seen as a barrier to the introduction of electric vehicles on a widespread basis but various manufacturers are now developing systems to deal with the issue.Siemens and BMW are working on an easy-to-use fast charging plug for electric cars. This system will allow sufficient charging for a 100km range in less than 30 minutes.

Forward bookings for the upcoming Intermat construction equipment exhibition in French capital Paris are extremely bullish. The organisers say that the show already has a 90% occupancy rate for its exhibition space, a full eight months before the 2012 event, which runs from 16h April to 21st April. The Intermat 2012 event will feature 375,000m2 of exhibition area, including a 20,000m2 outdoor demonstration area. In all 1,500 exhibitors have booked, 67% of whom are international and there will be four nation

An alliance of companies has come together to realise major infrastructure projects in Latvia including its biggest bridge. Patrick Smith reports. Riga, the Latvian capital, has the finest collection of Art Nouveau buildings in Europe and its centre is on the UNESCO World Heritage List. The city of some 750,000 people (the country's total population is 2.2 million) is bounded to the south by Lithuania and to the north by Estonia, and is the second largest in Baltic States. To the east is Russia and Belarus.

Results show the state of Europe's tunnel infrastructure at its 'most sublime and most depressing quality' as Patrick Smith reports. EuroTAP [European Tunnel Assessment Programme] 2010 has unveiled the results of inspections conducted earlier this year in 26 major tunnels in 13 European countries. The on site inspections, carried out between 12 April and 20 May, 2010, are said to indicate that an "alarming number of operational tunnels across Europe will not be ready to comply with EU tunnel safety rules wh

Bidding is underway on the project to uprgade Montreal’s Turcot interchange, a project expected to be worth some US$3.02 billion (C$3 billion). Canadian construction contractor SNC-Lavalin has selected Louisbourg SBC as part of the Groupe Futur Turcot consortium that is bidding for the project. Infrastructure Quebec has released the names of all five bidders for the Turcot project. The interchange carries some 300,000 vehicles/day and is one of the busiest in the country.

The low risk found for driving through the tunnel is primarily due to the low volume of traffic of around 11,000 vehicles/day and the ban on HGVs and the transport of hazardous goods. Unidirectional traffic, sufficiently wide lanes, emergency lanes and lighting are the main reasons for the very good result for preventive measures. The tunnel is monitored around-the-clock in a tunnel control centre manned by trained staff, and incidents are automatically reported to the control centre by video link. If neces