Road Structures

New Zealand prime minister John Key led an official ground-breaking ceremony this week to allow the start of excavation work for two new 2.4km-long motorway tunnels beneath suburban Auckland. The Waterview Connection project is on schedule to begin its main construction phase next year, and the prime minister was on hand to turn the first soil for a 30m-deep trench which is needed to allow access for the tunnels’ southern approach trench in the west Auckland suburb of Owairaka.

Rapid growth in a major Australian city in recent years has created new problems for the infrastructure and especially transport Expansion in the city of Brisbane, the Queensland state capital and the third largest city in the country, is set to continue and some 1,500 people arrive/week from within Australia and from other parts of the world. At this rate by 2026 the city's population should increase by 1.4 million: at present it is 1.8 million. To cope, the Queensland government and city council have ini

A massive AU$2 billion update of the Gateway Motorway in Queensland is underway to improve an infrastructure stretched by population boom. Report and photographs by Adrian Greeman Just 20 years after the Australian city of Brisbane built its Gateway Motorway with a high slim signature bridge dominating the river skyline, the road is being completely revamped. Some 12km of urban route on the south of the Brisbane River is being expanded to take much increased traffic levels; the north is getting a completely

Political hostility to a toll road project in Australia has been turned around by the quality and amenity of the project writes Adrian Greeman Cars, trucks and vans were taking to the new EastLink toll road in Melbourne with enthusiasm this July, pleased to try out its 39km route for time and cost savings. As well as the convenience of the uncongested route, drivers were also able to view an extraordinary multi-shaded perspective of transparent green and orange noise wall panels, burnt earth-coloured retai

Predictions of impending doom for Australia's roads infrastructure have given the nation's governments and roads stakeholders the fright they needed to collaborate on roads policy. If the latest initiatives Australia is putting in place do produce the full extent of the roads reform required, there will be some lessons there for the whole world Whether through pride or stubbornness, or a combination of both, each state and territory of Australia has always liked to do things its own way. To some extent and

North of the Austrian capital Vienna, one of the region's biggest transport infrastructure projects for decades is currently under construction, the A5 Nordautobahn. This will give the Greater Vienna region its first-ever high-capacity link to the Czech motorway and arterial road network, greatly easing congestion on the old main road. In the first phase of construction, 22.7km of motorway are to be built. Work on the second section, all the way through to the Czech border, is to start in 2010. The A5 Norda

Terex has acquired Hydra Platforms, a specialist manufacturer of access equipment designed for bridge maintenance and repair. This business is being brought into the group alongside its Bid-Well brand. The move gives Terex Roadbuilding a business that concentrates in bridge maintenance with the addition of the under-bridge access equipment to the existing range of bridge pavers, work bridges and texture/curing machines. The Hydra Platforms range includes seven hydraulically operated, self-contained units an

Hydrodemolition specialist Aquajet is offering an improved, low-noise power pack for its equipment. Redesigned to meet tough restrictions on noise emissions for equipment used in urban locations, the power pack is also more economical on fuel, an important point given fast rising fuel costs. The firm's hydrodemolition unit is aimed at concrete scarification and removal, and the noise levels from the new Ecosilence Power Pack are so low that normal conversation can continue alongside as it operates. Accordin

Murom, one of Russia's best preserved old cities, is situated in the European part of the country, around 300km to the east of Moscow. The most important industry and economic activities are mechanical engineering along with timber and textiles. The location on the River Oka, a tributary of the Volga and thus an important waterway, as well as the good connections to important main roads and rail routes, are positive economic factors. It is near Murom that German formwork and scaffolding specialist PERI is p

Neckarauer overpass, a railroad bridge adjacent to the plant of German paving equipment manufacturer Vögele, is one of Mannheim's main traffic arteries. Built in 1936, the overpass represents an important link into the city for commuters coming from the south of the Rhine-Neckar region being used by some 60,000 vehicles/day, together with several tram lines running every five minutes. Corrosion has caused heavy damage to the steel girder bridge, and recently a 30km/hour speed limit has been in place along w