News

Following media coverage which contained allegations of unethical business behaviour, Imtech began an internal investigation into the former management of Fritz & Macziol Schweiz. This behaviour allegedly included excessive gifts and entertainment offered to Seco civil servants. The internal investigation initiated by Imtech was conducted by a substantial external team of lawyers, accountants and forensic experts. The office of the public prosecutor in Switzerland has also initiated criminal investigati

The UK Highways Agency is holding a series of public exhibitions to inform road users, local residents and businesses about proposals to transform the M4 into one of the longest stretches of ‘smart motorway’ in England by 2021. The improvement, on a 32-mile stretch between junction 3 at Hayes in London, and junction 12 at Theale in Berkshire, would increase capacity, improve journey reliability and maintain safety. The proposals are part of the Government’s investment into England’s motorways and majo

Stationnement de Montreal, which manages parking for the City of Montreal, Canada, has announced a project with smart parking solutions provider Streetline, with the aim of reducing congestion and increasing parking availability ion the city. Already deployed in more than 40 locations in both the US and Europe, Streetline's patented smart parking platform detects the presence of a car through a network of ultra-low power wireless sensors located in the pavement of individual parking spaces. Data from th

Designed to boost driver awareness of pedestrians, McCain says its latest technology for pedestrian safety, the rectangular rapid flashing beacon (RRFB), is widely recognised as a means to reduce accidents between vehicles and pedestrians at intersections and mid-block crosswalks without traffic signals. An ideal solution for a range of applications, the RRFB has highly visible high-intensity LEDs which remain dark until activated by a pedestrian, when the lights flash in a wig-wag pattern, alerting appr

Inrix and Audi are collaborating in a project to launch Russia’s first comprehensive traffic information and driver services platform. Developed through an exclusive partnership with Russia’s leading navigation services provider cdcom, Inrix XD Traffic provides drivers in Russia with real-time traffic and incident information covering more than 236,000 kilometers of roadways across 55 cities – the most comprehensive traffic information service available and the first traffic incident service of its kind

Three Japanese companies, Toshiba Corporation, Hitachi and Itochu Corporation are to supply the Vietnam Expressway Corporation (VEC) with an intelligent transportation systems (ITS) package to be installed on the 55-kilometre Ho Chi Minh and Dau Giay section of Vietnam’s North-South Expressway. The order, worth around US$39 million, includes electronic toll collection (ETC), traffic control and equipment monitoring systems, and is the first for an integrated ITS package that Japanese companies have recei

Moscow has announced a tender to build а toll road parallel to Kutuvkosky Prospekt, stretching from Moscow City’s business centre to the Moscow ring road and meet the M1 toll road. Expected to include four lanes of traffic, the US$1.1 billion project will take five to seven years to build, with the contract between the city and the winning tenderer lasting 40 years. The investor will be able to set the road's fare, though within limits prescribed by Moscow authorities. The city's head of construction,

In the wake of the European Parliament’s approval of the mandatory installation of automatic emergency phones in all cars and vans by 2015, the Irish Times says Ireland’s National Roads Authority (NRA) is to deploy a range of intelligent transport systems to improve travel times, warn drivers of weather, dangers and delays ahead and automatically notify emergency services in the event of crashes or even the potential for crashes. The NRA has developed a motorway traffic control centre, based at the Dubli

German video wall supplier eyevis has installed a 7 sq m video wall in the central control room of Société Anonyme d’Economie Mixte d’Exploitation du Stationnement (SAEMES), a parking system operator in the city of Paris, which manages more than 90 car parks in the city. Images from CCTV surveillance cameras installed in each car park are displayed in the central control room on the eyevis video wall, which consists of twelve 46-inch displays. With full HD resolution, direct LED backlight technology

Barcelona is to deploy a strategy using a variety of approaches to cut car traffic by more than 20 per cent to improve air quality in the city, particularly nitrogen dioxide and particulates. Barcelona's busy harbour and crowded streets mean that air pollution in the city is a constant challenge. The city's Mobility Plan includes reforms to parking charges, the bus network, and the concept of 'superblocks', where access to certain areas is restricted to private vehicles. Previous versions of the conce

Melbourne-based toll-road operator Transurban Group has announced that the consortium Lend Lease Bouygues is set to design and build the Sydney, Australia, NorthConnex tunnel link between the M1 and M2 motorways in the city’s northwest. The nine kilometre, 80 km/h tolled link involves two motorway tunnels, built with a three lane capacity for future growth but initially marked for two lanes each way. It provides the missing link in the National Highway Network and offers a safe and more efficient way of

Dubai ruler Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum has approved plans for a bridge to connect the luxury Bluewaters Island tourism project with the mainland. Dubai's transport authority said the US$136 million construction contract for the bridge, which will have two lanes in each direction and will be 1,400 metres long, will be awarded in the second quarter of this year. Mattar Al Tayer, chairman and executive director of the Roads and Transport Authority (RTA), said: "The new bridge will serve the ne

UK communities secretary Eric Pickles will announce in April 2014 that local authorities will be prohibited from using CCTV cameras for enforcement of parking regulations. Static and mobile CCTV cameras are used by at least 75 councils to catch people not returning to their vehicles before the meter expires, with 9 million parking fines issued per year, according to estimates. Pickles has proposed controversial reforms to local authority parking enforcement, including banning the use of CCTV, saying h

Singapore is trialling average speed cameras on the Changi coastal road, which has been the site of many accidents, despite the speed limit being sent to 70 km/hour. Spot speed cameras have been in use since 1992, but motorists will have a much harder time evading the new technology, which calculates a vehicle's average speed over a stretch to determine if it is breaching the speed limit. The cameras are mounted on gantries at two different locations about four kilometres apart. Singapore Road Saf

Thousands of cars will be banned from Parisian roads today as the city tries to curb dangerous pollution levels by introducing alternate driving days for the first time in nearly two decades. The radical move will see around 700 police officers deployed to man 60 checkpoints around the French capital to ensure that only cars with number plates ending in odd numbers are on the streets. Parking will be free for vehicles with even number plates, the Paris city hall said, calling on residents to consult