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Construction work on the 13.6km Gempol Pandaan toll road in East Java is commencing. The US$174.5 million project will take 18 months to complete and is expected to open for traffic in the third quarter of 2013.

A major highway deal has been agreed for a road project in Gujarat, India, worth an estimated US$810.8 million. It will be handled under the build, finance, operate and transfer basis and will involve upgrading and widening to six lanes a 102km section of National Highway 8 (NH-8) from Ahmedabad-Vadodara. The project also includes upgrading 92km of the existing Ahmedabad-Vadodara expressway. Work is expected to take three years to complete, and the 25-year concession deal for the project has been a

In the Czech Republic tenders worth €146.15 million are now open for bids. The bidding process was started for the 50 tenders by the Czech Roads and Motorways Directorate (RSD). Most of the tenders relate to the D1 and D3 highway project, the Prague Ring Road and the R6 link between Prague and Karlovy Vary and for documentation and technical supervision of the upgrade works. RSD will also spend €32.4 million on the technical supervision of smaller projects in the next four years.

In the Czech Republic the road authorities are looking to address quality issues that have caused problems on the country’s roads and highways. The Czech Roads and Motorways Directorate (RSD) plans to check the quality of highways using vehicle-mounted scanning laser technology. This will allow RSD to launch repairs before potholes are formed. It is estimated that costs of the repairs will be cut by 30%. RSD tried a similar method of scanning in 2006 but the project was suspended because of a lack of fundin

Riga International Airport in Latvia is seeing growth in aircraft numbers and passengers, prompting a need for investment and upgrades.

A new southern bypass is planned for Yekaterinburg in the Ural Mountains area of Russia at an estimated cost of up to US$721.5 million. When complete, the bypass will connect the existing Chelyabinsk and Perm Highways. The state-owned road company Avtodor will work with the local government for the Sverdlovsk Region to finalise the details of the company building the link.

The Mongolian Government intends to boost investment in the country’s road network, part of a move to improve access in major towns and cities as well as connect outlying areas. With development of Mongolia’s mineral resources set to expand, new road links will be crucial to its economic future. The government has given approval for the construction of bridges and roads. This also includes repairing 35km of roads and building 25km of paved roads will be built in capital Ulaanbaatar.

BOMAG says that its new BF800 paver has now been well proven in tough working applications. The newly developed BF800 follows the same basic design principles of the smaller BF300 and BF600 models and weighs in at 20tonnes, with a maximum screed width of 2.5-10m. Extensive testing of the BF800 was carried out in an array of difficult operations and in late 2010 some 14,000tonnes of asphalt was laid in 3.5 days in 24-hour shifts to reconstruct the Brenner highway on the A22 near Bozen in northern Italy.

Controversy still surrounds a key road project in Bolivia. Local communities within the TIPNIS nature reserve are once again protesting against the project to build a new road, the ninth such march carried out so far. In all 64 communities in the TIPNIS reserve are being consulted on the construction of the second stretch of the Villa Tunari-San Ignacio de Moxos road, which is at the centre of the protests. The road is planned to be built through part of the reserve, although the authorities say the link wi

Praslin, the second-largest of the Seychelles Islands with roughly 6,500 inhabitants, is a tropical paradise of white sandy beaches, dense jungle and crystal clear seas. Tourism is the island's main source of income, and luxury tourism at that. A road had to be diverted for a new five-star hotel and property development project which will create jobs for around 400 people. The road would have obstructed the residents' access to the sea. Sey-Afrique Exporters from Pinetown, South Africa, won the contra

Delays are expected for the project to build a new tunnel connecting Denmark with Germany. Femern, the firm managing the 19km Fehmarnbelt tunnel project from Denmark to Germany, has said that the current time plan is too ambitious. Femern believes that it will be 2015 rather than 2014 before work will commence. The tunnel would then open in 2012.

Leica Geosystems has launched v3.0 of its Leica PaveSmart 3D system, which is designed specifically for concrete and asphalt paving and milling applications. This upgraded package is now said to support a wider range of paving equipment and applications than before. PaveSmart 3D v3.0 will be available late March 2012 through Leica Geosystems’ direct sales and approved paving solution distribution channels, including GOMACO.

The new Hyderabad Outer Ring Road (ORR) project is a 158km eight-lane highway encircling the Andhra Pradesh city. It has been designed to relieve congestion in and around the city and to act as a hub for accessing India's national highway network, and is being built for the Hyderabad Metropolitan Development Authority. Indian contractor Ramky Infrastructure is relying on an Atlas Copco MB 1700 hydraulic breaker to break granite as aggregates at a quarry site adjacent to the new road. The rock is bein

Indeco's innovative HP18000 hydraulic hammer is now being proven in a tough demolition application in the US. The Italian company hopes to sell more of its innovative HP18000 models now that its class-leading hydraulic system is proving its worth in the field. Tipping the scales at an impressive 11tonnes, the HP18000 is now the biggest breaker available on the market anywhere and is designed for use on carriers that weigh up to 140tonnes. Some 4.6m long and with a 250mm diameter tool, the HP18000 can delive

One of the most notable developments in the loading and hauling sector though again comes from Liebherr, with the long awaited launch of its ADT range.

The strong road construction market in Morocco is helping boost the quarrying market in the country substantially. One such operation exists near the town of Ben Slimane, situated north of Casablanca. Agregat Oued Cherrat (AOC) owns a 65ha quarry, one of the largest of the 14 in the region and when the firm decided to buy new excavators, it also opted to buy Hitachi machines. AOC placed an order for one ZX330-3, with the second delivered three months later and the company now has three ZX330-3s, with a four

The bridge over Auckland Harbour celebrates its half century this year, and it has been given a major upgrade to ensure that safety is maintained in New Zealand's largest city. Mary Searle reports. Auckland is New Zealand's largest city, home to nearly a third of the entire country's population. It's a sprawling metropolis, and its 1.3 million people are spread over 637km² of city, suburbs and islands. The Auckland Harbour Bridge, which celebrates its 50th birthday in May, is a vital link in the city's road

Caterpillar's new 390DL excavator is said to delivers higher performance and increased durability over the 385C model it replaces.

A novel use of a scrap shear has helped safety upgrades for the A14 highway linking the Italian cities of Bari and Naples. A Promove SC2200 scrap shear has been used to cut and remove old steel guard-rail on the highway.

DELTA, which has introduced its brand new handheld RetroSign GR3 retroreflectometer for measuring the retroreflection of traffic signs, also offers a number of instruments for road markings. The Danish company points out that as the median age of the average driver grows the importance of night-time visibility of pavement markings for traffic safety becomes even greater. "Night-time visibility is determined by the retroflectivity of the pavement markings and therefore retroreflectivity is an important p