News

Fears that the closure of a heavily congested stretch of highway in the US city of Los Angeles would lead to massive gridlock over the weekend proved groundless. The demolition of the Mulholland Overpass crossing above I-405 required a 53 hour closure of the busy highway along a 16km stretch. The highway carries amongst the heaviest traffic volumes of any stretch of road in the US and there has been concern that the necessary closure would cause chaos on the city as the inhabitants rely heavily on passenger

A court-appointed trustee has selected Russian entrepreneur Boris G. Zingarevich, whose investment operations are based in St. Petersburg, Russia, as the winning bidder for Think Global electric vehicle manufacturer, following a bankruptcy proceeding initiated by the Norwegian carmaker last month. In addition, Zingarevich has signed a memorandum of understanding with American advanced lithium-ion battery maker Ener1, and Finnish automobile engineering and manufacturing concern Valmet Automotive, to cooperat

The US Department of Transportation will be holding a free public meeting and webinar to provide details on the Connected Vehicle research programme. The public meeting will take place on 2-4 August, 2011, in Chicago and will include sessions related to connected vehicle safety, future policy implications for connected vehicles, and connected vehicle safety for commercial vehicles and transit vehicles. The webinar service will be available all day on August 2nd and 3rd and during the morning only on August

The US Department of Transportation will be holding a free public meeting and webinar to provide details on the Connected Vehicle research programme. The public meeting will take place on 2-4 August, 2011, in Chicago and will include sessions related to connected vehicle safety, future policy implications for connected vehicles, and connected vehicle safety for commercial vehicles and transit vehicles. The webinar service will be available all day on August 2nd and 3rd and during the morning only on August

Trimble has signed an agreement to acquire privately-held PeopleNet, a leading provider of integrated onboard computing and mobile communications systems for fleet management. The transaction is expected to close in the third quarter of 2011.

The GCC Gulf Transport Report Highlights a massive programme of construction projects in hand in the Middle East. In the United Arab Emirates the report says that at present, there is over US$58 billion worth of road and bridge projects planned or underway. Abu Dhabi Roads Transport (DoT) has a master plan to develop surface transportation for the emirate. The project will be planned and implemented in collaboration with municipal organisations of different areas of the emirate. One of the most significant

ECOtality has announced a partnership with Car2go, a subsidiary of Daimler North America Corporation, to provide electric vehicle charging infrastructure to support what is being claimed as the first 100-per cent electric car sharing programme in North America. With plans for approximately 300 Smart Fortwo electric drive vehicles, the programme in San Diego represents the largest fleet of EVs in the United States.

Google has announced that it is making road traffic conditions available in 13 countries in Europe. The new traffic information is in the traffic layer on Google Maps, Google Maps for mobile, and Google Maps Navigation (Beta). Coverage includes all freeways and highways, as well as large roads in major cities in Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, Denmark, Germany, Ireland, Israel, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Poland, Slovakia, Spain and Switzerland. Users in the UK will also benefit from a finer grain of street

The Knik Arm Bridge and Toll Authority (KABATA) has issued a Request for Qualifications (RFQ) for concessionaires to design, construct, finance, operate and maintain the Knik Arm Crossing under an availability payment public-private partnership. Statements of Qualifications (SOQ) are due 15 September, 2011 at 4:00PM Alaska Daylight Saving Time. The RFQ can be downloaded at http://notes4.state.ak.us/pn/pubnotic.nsf or interested parties can receive the RFQ by contacting Michele Casey at michele.casey@alaska