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The Canadian province of Ontario has earmarked around US$1 billion for road repairs and upgrades during 2019. The money is for 123 projects of which around $384 million will go to 20 projects in central Ontario. Northeastern Ontario will receive $218 million for 32 highway projects, mostly along Highway 11 – at nearly 1,800km the second longest in Ontario, Canada’s mostly populous province. Highway 11 runs from the provincial capital Toronto northwards and then westwards to the border with Manitoba pr

Hundreds of lives lost. More than 8,000 people stuck overnight in a flooded airport in Japan in the wake of a typhoon in 2018. Nearly 800% of the gross domestic product (GDP) of the Dutch island of St. Maarten (and 600% of the GDP of the French half, St. Martin) wiped out during the 2017 hurricane season, which devastated many Caribbean island economies, with over $5.4 billion in losses reported in Anguilla, Bahamas, British Virgin Islands, St. Maarten, and Turks and Caicos Islands alone. Transportation in

Demolition of the Alaska Way Viaduct in the northwest US city of Seattle is underway, including the filling in of a redundant road tunnel.

A Polish-Hungarian consortium has signed a €44 million contract to construct a bridge over the Dunajec River near the southern Polish town of Nowy Sacz. Przedsiebiorstwo Wielobranzowe Banimex, from Poland, and Hungarian contractor Hodmezovasarhelyi Utepito Korlatolt Felelossegu will build the bridge within 25 months, according to Polish media reports. Nowy Sącz is at the confluence of the Kamienica and Dunajec rivers , about 20km north of the border with Slovakia and in the Sądecka Valley.

The authorities in Vietnam’s coastal Quang Ninh Province have set out a transport infrastructure development plan. The programme of works will prioritise development of the Van Don Economic Zone (Van Don EZ) under the plan. The programme of works involved is expected to be worth US$358 million. New roads are planned, along with new bridges to provide better connections to some of the many islands in the province. The existing Van Don Airport will also benefit from an upgrade to boost capacity. Quang N

Road works in the Philippines will benefit from funding being provided by Japan.

Funding worth US$500 million has still to be secured for road works in Paraguay. A consortium, Rutas del Este consortium, requires the financing to carry out the widening and upgrade work to Ruta 2 and Ruta 7. The work will be carried out under the PPP model, the first time this has been utilised in Paraguay. Rutas del Este comprises the contractors Sacyr and Ocho A. The consortium will operate the highway under a 30 year concession.

Work is underway on the M76 dual carriageway project in Hungary, with the first section due for completion in summer 2020. Building the 40km dual carriageway is costing over €523 million. The project includes building a bridge at Balatonszentgyorgy, which is due for completion shortly. When it opens to traffic, the M76 will connect the M7 motorway (the E71 route) with the M74 route at Zalaegerszeg.

The package of works to construct the Pocitelj-Zvirovici stretch of the Corridor VC motorway in Bosnia has been awarded to two Chinese contractors. The 11km stretch of the route will cost nearly €103 million to build. The work will be handled jointly by the Synohydro Power Company and China State Construction Engineering Company. The package of works was awarded by Bosnia’s motorway company, Autoceste Federacije BiH. A portion of the funding required is being provided by the European Investment Bank (EIB).

Approval has been given for the project to build the sixth bridge connecting Thailand with Laos.

A proposed upgrade to the road connecting Costa Rica’s capital San Jose with nearby Cartago has been put forward. The project would cut journey times to just 30 minutes. The current route is known for its traffic delays, handling around 51,000 vehicles/day. The new route would feature a 3.2km section of flyover and the estimated cost is US$400 million. Should the project get the go ahead, work would commence in early 2021 and should take around two years to complete.

Concern is being expressed in the UK over the safety of low noise, electric vehicles. Children and those with poor sight are particularly at risk from electric vehicles, which are much quieter in operation than conventional vehicles powered by internal combustion engines.

Urban road safety is a key problem in Europe, an issue that needs to be addressed as a priority. That is the finding of a new report by the European Transport Safety Council (ETSC). The ETSC’s report reveals that road deaths on urban roads decreased at around half the rate of those on rural roads over the period 2010-2017. The report also shows that vulnerable road users such as pedestrians, cyclists and motorcyclists, account for 70% of those killed and seriously injured on urban roads. Dovilė Adminaitė-

The use of ALLU Transformer D-Series attachments are helping boost operations for a Swedish firm. The company, Kits Contractor, is using the units for precision screening and material processing applications for a variety of projects, transforming material arising from recycling, blasting and excavating. The firm bought its first ALLU Transformer in 2014 but found that the Transformer was too small for its needs, replacing the unit with an ALLU DN 3-12 model in 2015, which it still owns and operates.

Formwork specialist Paschal is now offering real-time concrete curing measurement using Maturix, a new system developed in Denmark. Am ordinary inexpensive wire is permanently embedded into the concrete during pouring. Concrete strength analysis and monitoring is carried out by wireless radio transmitters – this allows both improved planning and real-time monitoring independent of location and time, according to both companies. The optimal time for dismantling formwork is determined. The user rec

KINSHOFER is introducing the WS Drum Cutter Series. The drum cutters feature an exclusive pick angle and optimal chisel arrangement for high performance and minimal wear, suiting tunnelling, road construction and demolition. Drum cutters are an alternative to hydraulic breakers and the WS-Series are one of the quietest in the industry, suiting them for use in areas with noise restrictions. They also produce less vibration than breakers, so contractors can use them where there is a risk of disturbing a nea

Lindsay, a manufacturer of infrastructure equipment, and Iteris, a manufacturer of applied informatics for transportation, will together create smart work zones for US roadways. The companies said that their partnership supports the Federal Highway Administration’s (FHWA) Smarter Work Zone campaign to reduce traffic congestion and improve safety in work zones using intelligent transportation systems. There were 799 work zone-related fatalities in the US in 2017 – up 4.5% from their previous three-year aver

Wirtgen claims that its new W 380 Cri cold recycler is highly sophisticated and productive.

New developments in road recycling and milling will allow contractors to remove old surfaces more quickly and efficiently – Mike Woof reports

While efforts to improve road safety on the Asian continent are finally starting to pay off, the challenge to reduce fatalities remains immense. According to the Asian Development Bank, 60% of the annual 1.2 million fatal traffic injuries take place on Asia’s road network. Many of the contributing factors to this epidemic such as deficient infrastructure, outdated standards, and poor enforcement can be addressed with proper political leadership, well trained agency staff, and knowledge resources. However,