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The IRF is inviting applications for its 2017 IRF Global Road Achievement Awards. Founded in 2000, the IRF's Global Road Achievement Awards competition recognises exceptional projects across 12 categories. The application deadline is April 11th, 2017 and winners will be recognized at the 5th IRF Middle East Regional Congress & Exhibition, to be held October 29th-31st in Dubai, UAE.

SWARCO Traffic is teaming up with the Institute of Highway Engineers (IHE) to sponsor professional training. The firm is sponsoring the IHE Professional Certificate in Traffic Signal Control. This two-part course is designed to boost the knowledge and understanding of traffic control schemes for industry professionals. The sponsorship is helping cut the cost for delegates to attend the course, which is being held at NAL, Worcester. The aim of this is to encourage more within the industry to attend. Part

LiuGong has won a key quality management award for Asia. The firm was presented with the award at the 14th Congress of Asia Network for Quality (ANQ) held in Vladivostok, Russia . The award was the ANQ Recognition for Excellence in Quality Practice (ARE-QP) Award, the highest award in quality management in Asia. Launched in 2011, the award aims to recognise good quality practices among ANQ organisations. LiuGong is the first company from Chinese construction equipment industry to win the award. Tan Wei,

Kijlstra is supplying the A1 Leeming to Barton Improvement Scheme in the UK with one of the largest orders it has ever received for its precast square manholes. The Highways England scheme is being delivered by the Carillion Morgan Sindall joint venture. Once completed the scheme will unlock growth and boost the economy by creating a continuous motorway-standard route between London and Newcastle (including the M1 and A1M). It will also improve journey times and increase safety. As part of this proje

Industry confidence – at least for the near future - is supported by performance of the European market, according to the latest CECE Barometer. Stable development at high levels in northern and western Europe underpins a continuing yet slowing recovery in southern Europe and fairly weak growth in Central and Eastern Europe. There are around 350 global OEMs operating in Europe and more than 85% of their worldwide production is done in this region. Half of these 350 OEMs have all their production in Europe.

Industrie 4.0 is the common term for digitally connecting business processes from top to bottom within an organisation, including external site and logistics work. Industry 4.0 imagines a much more rapid digital transformational cycle with exponential levels of disruption, as opposed to the current linear trajectory. This shift will be driven by a blurring of and interactions between currently disparate technology fields, leading to total digitisation and automation of certain workflows. Key aspects include

Jean Todt, president of FIA - Federation Internationale de l’Automobile – warned that only a more joined-up and innovative approach to improving Europe’s roads will work. The safety of all who travel on roads is at stake, said Todt, who helped guide the red Ferrari Formula One team to several championship titles. He is also the United Nations special envoy for road safety. Speaking at the congress’ opening ceremony, PIARC (World Road Association) president-elect Claude Van Rooten agreed with Todt, saying th

The entire infrastructure investment programme in the United Kingdom - Europe’s second biggest economy - is at serious risk as the country begins the process of leaving the European Union “During the next five years, GDP Growth in the UK will be half of what it was in the previous five years,” warned Alexander Jan, a director at UK-based infrastructure designer Arup. The value of the currency will continue to crash and “there will be a doubling in the cost of government borrowing”. This is bad news f

CONEXPO-CON/AGG has revealed its list of speakers for its Tech Talks forum. The speakers will focus on the growing opportunities for innovation in infrastructure projects and construction jobsites. The line-up includes some of the world’s leading innovators. These are: Wayne Rapp, director of manufacturing, Hyperloop One; D'Arcy Salzmann, senior director, strategy, Microsoft HoloLens and studio manager, Future Bureau, Microsoft; Captains Mark and Scott Kelly, former NASA astronauts; Scott Brusaw, co-founder

A series of key upgrade projects are planned for Austria’s highway network. The works are being planned by Austria’s highway operator ASFINAG, with plans for €1.2 billion in improvements to be carried out. Included in the programme of works will be upgrades to 30 tunnel sections. These tunnel upgrades will include boosting capacity as well as installing sophisticated safety technology, to meet the latest EU requirements.

A Chinese contractor will carry out a major highway project in Bolivia. The company, Sinohydro, will construct a new road section close to El Sillar and the work will form part of the highway connecting Santa Cruz with Cochabamba. The work for the 28km stretch of road is costing around US$450 million to carry out and the link is due to open to traffic in 2019. Work on this section of road was intended to commence earlier but was delayed due to a number of unexpected administrative issues. Financing for this

Plans are in hand in Serbia to build new highway links, including routes joining with neighbouring Montenegro. One of the key projects in focus in Serbia itself is the route joining Novi Sad with Zrenjanin, while another is for the route between Zrenjanin and Borca. Road maintenance works are also being planned. Meanwhile discussions have been held between Serbia and Montenegro over new highway connections to link the two countries. The aim is to build a new highway that will run from Belgrade, through Podg

Construction work is due to commence on Pakistan’s Hyderabad-Sukkur Motorway. The route will connect Sukkur and Hyderabad and will be 296km in length. This new stretch is costing US$1.53 billion and will form part of the Peshawar-Karachi Motorway (PKM). The plans call for the project to be carried out under the build-operate-transfer (BOT) model, although the details have yet to be finalised.

Four road construction and repair contracts have been awarded in Angola by its road agency, Instituto Nacional de Estradas de Angola (INEA). The prUSojects are all being carried out in the area around capital Luanda. The largest project will be carried out by Mota Engil. This is a $192 million package of works to upgrade the Via Expressa/Camama/Avenida Pedro de Castro Van-Dúnem Loy route. Portuguese contractor Telhabel Construcoes will carry out the $79.72 million project to improve access in the Boavista d

Optimism about the future of highways worldwide abounded at the inaugural European Road Infrastructure Conference (ERIC) in Leeds, UK. Around 500 delegates passed through the varied sessions during the three-day event at the Royal Armouries Museum in the northern English city of Leeds. They came away with many visions of what a motorway and road could look like. But what speakers at the event - co-organised by the Brussels-based European Union Road Federation (ERF) and the UK’s Road Safety Markings Associat