Skip to main content

Thomas Concrete Group “growing in the US and Europe”

The Swedish Thomas Concrete Group says it continues to grow in the United States, with the acquisition of three concrete plants in North and South Carolina, complementing the group’s network along the Atlantic coast. At the end of 2016, the Group also acquired three concrete plants in northern Poland. “Through strategic acquisitions in the US states of North Carolina, South Carolina and Georgia, Thomas Concrete Group has over the years achieved a strong position as a key supplier of ready-mixed concre
February 17, 2017 Read time: 2 mins
The New Zealand government has confirmed that it is considering the introduction of open road tolling in Auckland.

Finance minister Steven Joyce told a business audience the government could support tolling but would not support a regional fuel tax.

He said, “There is no getting away from the fact that central Auckland is built on a narrow isthmus which makes it hard to get around – and the available land transport corridors are rapidly being used.

“So beyond the current building programme we are going to have to look at demand management to reduce the reliance on the road corridors, in favour of buses, trains and ferries.”

Joyce said the government is developing a work programme to look at demand management tools including electronic road tolling in the medium to long term. It would expect that any road pricing initiative on existing motorways and highways would predominantly be a replacement for petrol taxes and road user charges not in addition to them.

He said the government was keen to have a more detailed discussion about demand management tools and explore further options for longer term funding for new infrastructure, including the use of private finance for certain projects.

Related Content

  • Politicisation of US transportation funding
    October 13, 2015
    Andrew Bardin Williams looks at how a political stalemate and a series of short-term fixes is undermining America’s highway funding and curtailing long-term planning. It was a week before the deadline to renew funding for the Highway Trust Fund, and the clock was ticking.
  • Will interoperability prevent progress?
    January 10, 2014
    David Crawford examines the political and industrial background to the tolling technology debate. Saving the US State of California ‘millions of dollars’ in tolling infrastructure costs by encouraging new technologies is the professed aim of a legislative Bill, SB 242, which is currently moving through the State’s Senate (upper house) process. According to its sponsor, Republican State Senator Mark Wyland, permitting alternatives to the current FasTrak-branded radio-frequency identification (RFID)-based sys
  • 3M sees big potential in ITS sector
    December 16, 2013
    Having re-entered the ITS market, 3M is busy shaping the future technology for vehicle detection, tolling and parking, as Colin Sowman discovers. Having sold off its Opticom business in 2007, 3M effectively re-entered the ITS market last year paying $110 million for Federal Signal Technology Group (FSTech) – but why?
  • Putting the brakes on smart motorways
    February 28, 2022
    The UK government has announced that development of its all-lane running highways is going to be put on hold for another few years to assess safety data. Adam Hill finds out why