Joint roadworks permit scheme given go ahead
July 30, 2013
(Surrey and East Sussex county councils have entered a joint roadworks permit scheme that is designed to reduce congestion on the counties roads.)
Transport Secretary Patrick McLoughlin has given both councils control over when utility companies and other businesses dig up the roads, with firms needing to apply for a permit before they can begin any roadworks.
In Surrey alone around 45,000 roadworks take place annually, costing the county’s economy just under £100 million due to the congestion they cause.
Reducing roadworks in Surrey will save the county’s economy millions of pounds every year through greater coordination of activity and stricter controls over when and how roadworks are carried out.
Local Transport Minister Norman Baker said: “Roadworks may be necessary, but it can be incredibly frustrating for people when they get stuck in traffic jams.
“That is why we have given Surrey and East Sussex County Council the power and the freedom to take greater control of how its road works are organised and co-ordinated. This will not only help to reduce congestion in and around the county, but provide a better service to drivers, cyclists and passengers.”
John Furey, Surrey County Council’s cabinet member for transport and environment, said: “This will mean that rather than simply informing us of roadworks, companies will have to ask permission to work in a road for a specific period of time and specified purpose. So if two separate companies wanted to work on the same road, we could request they carry out their work at the same time. This means the road would only have to be closed once, halving congestion.”
The initiative will be called the South East Permit Scheme, paving the way for other councils to join in the future. It is due to come into effect this winter.
Source-http://www.highwaysmagazine.co.uk/
Parking on double yellow lines could be allowed
July 30, 2013
Motorists could be allowed to park on double yellow lines for up to 15 minutes under plans mooted by the Conservatives.
Under the proposals drivers would be able to park free of charge for a short period while picking up goods from shops. They would also be able to leave their cars in bays for longer without being fined.
Parking and waiting on double yellow lines is currently prohibited for all vehicles. The only exceptions are vehicles that are making commercial deliveries and pick-ups, blue badge holders and the emergency services.
Some local authorities already allow motorists to park free of charge for up to 30 minutes close to shops and Conservative ministers in the coalition Government are to keen to extend that to help high streets.
According to the Daily Telegraph, sources close to communities secretary Eric Pickles said that “over-aggressive” parking enforcement was one of the reasons why so many shops were struggling.
The source said: “The High Street is in danger of shrinking or dying off, and over-aggressive parking enforcement is part of the reason why.
“If people are worried about paying a fortune in parking fines, it will make them more likely to do their shop online or go to out of town shopping centres. For too long parking has been a revenue raiser. It’s time to end that.
“There is room for a deal [with the Liberal Democrats]. Dangerous parking is a menace to people, whereas if you’re in the parking bay or just on the side of the road you’re not presenting any risk.”
Source -http://www.highwaysmagazine.co.uk/
ADB to fund major highway project linking India’s North-East and Myanmar
June 20, 2013
The Asian Development Bank (ADB) is set to provide financing for a major highway project that will link India’s North-East (NE) region to Myanmar.
This latest project comes at the time when India’s commerce minister Anand Sharma set a bilateral trade target of $3bn by 2015 in his recent visit to Myanmar.
In addition, India is planning to launch a bus service from Moreh to Myanmar’s Mandalay, along with an integrated check-post in Moreh in order to facilitate the transportation of goods and services at the borders of the two countries.
{“The planned highway, which is in accordance with
India’s Look-East policy,will connect
Agartala, Silchar, Imphal and Moreh with Myanmar.” }
Officials from ADB have recently visited Manipur for a technical survey and presented their preliminary aid memo to the Indian road ministry, which is examining the appropriate alignment and several other technical aspects before okaying the project.
A Road Ministry official was quoted by The Indian Economic Times as saying that the ADB is interested in financing four-lane highways, which has to be in line with traffic conditions in these regions.
According to experts, the proposed highway project is vital for India, as well as for other countries, such as Japan that are seeking to restrict China’s dominance over lesser-developed countries in South-East Asia.
India offered help to Myanmar in upgrading its 160km-long Tamu-Kalewa-Kalemyo road as well as in constructing the Kaladan multi-modal transit transport project, among other developments.
India’s Look East policy, initiated in 1991, represents the country’s efforts to develop extensive economic and strategic relations with South-East Asian countries in order to strengthen its position as a regional power and a counterweight to the strategic influence of China.
US breaks ground on final part of Ohio River Bridges project
June 20, 2013
{ “The new bridge and its counterpart in Louisville’s East End will be the
region’s first new bridges in more than 50 years.”}
The US Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) has broken ground on the $1.3bn Downtown Crossing – the second half of the Ohio River Bridges project.
Scheduled to be completed in late 2016, the project involves the construction of a new bridge that widens I-65 from seven to 12 lanes over the Ohio River in downtown Louisville and the reconstruction of Kennedy Interchange where I-64, I-65, and I-71 converge.
The new bridge and its counterpart in Louisville’s East End will be the region’s first new bridges in more than 50 years.
US Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood said: “This new bridge, and its East End counterpart, will create jobs and provide more transportation options for one of America’s most important trade corridors.”
Federal Highway Administrator Victor Mendez said: “By reducing congestion, these bridge projects not only create jobs but will allow local residents to spend more time with friends and family.”
Planning for the project started in 1969, and works on the East End Crossing began in autumn last year.
The programme was approved by the federal authorities in June 2012, and was originally estimated to cost $4.1bn but later revised to $2.6bn.
The new bridge will almost double the traffic capacity of the river crossing and considerably lower the time and cost required to ship US products through the Louisville metropolitan area.
Image: The new bridge and its counterpart in Louisville’s East End will be the region’s first new bridges in nearly 50 years.
Source-http://www.roadtraffic-technology.com
Australia begins installation of smart technology on West Gate Freeway
June 20, 2013
“
(The technology will be fully integrated with the system already in use on the M1 east of Williamstown Road, as well as that planned for the M80 Ring Road.”
Australia has begun the installation of new electronic freeway management technology along the West Gate Freeway in Melbourne, Victoria.
The project includes new signs to inform drivers which lanes they should use and any temporary speed limit changes, as well as closed circuit television, and an upgrade to the supporting communication networks and central control systems.
The technology will be fully integrated with the system already in use on the M1 east of Williams town Road, as well as that planned for the M80 Ring Road.
Scheduled to be completed by mid-2014, the project will provide Melbourne with the tools to better manage traffic flows and respond quickly to accidents and breakdowns.
“Indeed if applied nationwide, electronic freeway management systems have the potential to greatly reduce congestion and save Australian families and businesses more than $500 million a year,” the minister said.
The West Gate Freeway project is being funded by the Federal ($12.5m) and Victorian ($12.5m) governments.
West Gate Freeway connects Geelong to Melbourne CBD, and will also act as a link between Melbourne and the west.
It will also connect industrial and residential areas west of the Yarra River with the city and port areas.
Image: Around 180,000 motorists and truck drivers use West Gate Freeway every day. Photo: courtesy of Thiess.
Source-http://www.roadtraffic-technology.com
Siemens to supply intelligent transportation system to Polish city
June 19, 2013
German engineering and electronics conglomerate Siemens has secured a contract to supply intelligent transportation system to improve traffic flow in the city of Poznan, Poland.
Scheduled for commissioning in spring 2015, Siemens’ Sitraffic Concert will gather, evaluate and process real-time traffic data from over 200 measurement points, including intersections, parking lots and public transport.
The system will offer information on the current traffic situation and departure times of nearby public transportation, as well as speed up the flow of public transport through traffic control when required.
All traffic information will be also transmitted to the internet, as well as being available for radio, texting, email and various transportation applications.
The contract involves the installation of 12 variable message signs in strategic locations, displaying information collected from 115 intersections in the primary road network by the traffic control centre.
The centre also measures the type, number and speed of passing vehicles at regular intervals.
Poznan, the fifth largest city in Poland with a population of more than 500,000, is experiencing rapid growth in traffic.
The latest intelligent transportation system by Siemens is expected to support further transport-related developments and improve the efficiency of public transportation in the city.
Siemens has previously implemented a wide range of projects in major Polish cities and other parts of the world, including Warsaw, Cracow, Athens, Budapest, Berlin, Reykjavik, Prague, Vienna, Innsbruck, Rome, Geneva, Buenos Aires, Johannesburg and Bogota.
[The new €15m contract aims to coordinate private and public transportation in a cross-system concept in order to enhance the overall traffic situation in the city.]
Source-http://www.roadtraffic-technology.com/
The Road Goes Ever On: Route 66 and the American Dream- A Blast from the past
June 17, 2013
ANDREAS FEININGER
One could search long and hard before finding a more stirring two-word phrase in the English language than “road trip!” It works with families, couples, old friends, new friends: pack two or more people into a car with some good music, high-sodium snacks and no fixed, unshakable destination, and you’ve got the ingredients for a (more often than not) excellent adventure. After all, the car — or motorcycle, or VW microbus — is far more than a mere utilitarian contrivance. For roughly the past 100 years, ever since Henry Ford began mass-producing his revolutionary Model T, Americans have been engaged in a love affair with automobiles and, in a much larger sense, with the enduring myth of the open road. Has there ever been a culture that extolled movement for the sake of movement as fervently as 20th century America? In movies (It Happened One Night, Easy Rider, The Straight Story, Lost in America and countless others) and, of course, in popular songs (by Woody Guthrie, Chuck Berry, Springsteen, Lucinda Williams, Dylan and the rest) the notion of getting behind the wheel and simply taking off is celebrated to the point where road-tripping feels like a universally embraced national religion. In 1947, Andreas Feininger made a photograph in Arizona that might be the single most perfect picture ever made of the single most famous road in America: Route 66, the 2,400-mile “Mother Road’ that runs from Chicago through Missouri, Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas, New Mexico, Arizona and finally across the Mojave to Los Angeles. The picture is a remarkable distillation of an idea: namely, that the American West is a place where people find themselves, or lose themselves, amid heat, sun, open spaces, enormous skies. Despite the fact that Feininger’s photograph is packed with “information” — cars, a bus, human figures, a gas station, a garage, towering clouds, an arrow-straight ribbon of road to the horizon — its essential emptiness can be read as a metaphor for the blank slate that innumerable people have sought in the West. Here is where you can redefine yourself, the scene suggests. Reimagine yourself. Reinvent yourself. Then keep moving. Like the American West itself — or like the mythical West of our collective memory — Feininger’s Route 66 feels both companionable and limitless. We want it to go on forever, and if only we have wheels, and enough time, and enough gas, deep down we believe it can. — Ben Cosgrove is the Editor of LIFE.com
Source: http://life.time.com
Why you should stop talking to your car
June 17, 2013
By Clifford Nass, Special to CNN
(Commuters move slowly in Los Angeles. Studies show that talking to your car’s voice technology impairs driving.)
STORY HIGHLIGHTS
- Clifford Nass: More of our brain is devoted to speech than anything else; we love to talk
- Nass: Talking to technology in your car is not natural and it confuses your brain
- He says even with hands on wheel and eyes on road, talking to your car impairs driving
- Nass: Your brain works to fill in the blanks talking to an entity you can’t see and doesn’t listen
Editor’s note: Clifford Nass is the Thomas M. Storke Professor at Stanford University and director of the Communication between Humans and Interactive Media (CHIMe) Lab. He is the author of “The Man Who Lied to his Laptop: What Machines Teach Us About Human Relationships,” “Wired for Speech” and “The Media Equation.”(CNN) – Speaking is profoundly human: More of the human brain is devoted to speech than any other activity. People can have an IQ of 50, or a brain that is only one-third the normal size and have difficulties with many simple tasks, but they can speak.Humans are so tuned to words that from about the age of 18 months, children learn about eight to 10 new words a day, a rate that continues until adolescence.Humans love to speak: When two hearing people encounter each other, they will speak, despite having other means of communication such as gesturing or drawing. Even when people speak different languages or come from different cultures, they will try to find common words and phrases.One-day-old infants can distinguish speech from any other sounds and 4-day-olds can distinguish between their native language and other languages. Even in the womb, a fetus can distinguish her or his mother’s voice from all other female voices. Adults can distinguish speech sounds at twice the rate of any other sounds, aided by special hair cells in the outer right ear.
Curbing distracted driving
NTSB: No cell phones while driving
Among all animals, only humans have the necessary breathing apparatus and musculature to be able to speak: despite the “Planet of the Apes,” no primate could speak like a person, even if their brains grew. Even human ancestors such as the Neanderthal could not possibly speak: speech is a new and remarkably impressive ability.
So, there is nothing so human as speech — at least until modern technologies came along. Through striking advances in a computer’s ability to understand and produce speech, it is common to use your telephone to make airline reservations, answer questions and search the Web.
Because of the shrinking size and increasing speed of computers, it is also possible to speak directly to your automobile.
From putting up with the car intoning, “Your door is ajar,” we have moved to navigation systems that can tell you where to find a latte and car interfaces that understand spoken commands and even allow drivers to dictate e-mails, texts and make phone calls.
What could be more simple and natural than talking, even to a technology? And speaking to cars seems particularly desirable. We don’t have to take our eyes from the road or our hands from the wheel to select buttons or make choices: Why not let our mouths and our ears do all the work?
Unfortunately, it’s not so simple or so desirable.
Recent research by the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety, conducted by David Strayer at the University of Utah, finds that the new technology can be so distracting it impairs the ability to drive. Studies found that while driving, our attention becomes overloaded by speaking. It basically takes our minds, if not our eyes, off the road.
Here are three reasons why talking while driving is so distracting, and not as safe and effective as you might think:
People like to picture who they are talking with. When you speak with someone face-to-face, you “hear lips and see voices”: Your brain automatically and easily focuses on the person.
When you speak on the telephone, you use brainpower to create a mental image of the person you are talking with: The less you know the person, the more mental workload it takes. When you talk to a car, use a phone in a car or dictate a text message, your brain has to do a great deal of work to picture with whom you are communicating. When you’re thinking that hard, it’s very difficult to pay attention to the road.
That’s why talking on a cell phone — hands free or not — is much more dangerous than talking to a passenger. The need to imagine steals from attention to the road.
People want to be understood. Although people love to speak, there are few more frustrating things than someone not listening. Listeners puts a great deal of energy into showing that they are listening: They nod their head, say “uh huh,” open their eyes and change their posture. People are built to expect these signals of attention, but cars refuse to provide them.
As a result, drivers become overly concerned with whether the car understands or is even listening, and their attention is again drawn away from the road. In addition, the voice of the car does not have the rich vocal cues that indicate engagement and emotion, providing further evidence that the car isn’t understanding.
Cars are not native speakers. When you encounter someone who isn’t facile in your language, you have to put a great deal of time into selecting the right words, avoiding idioms and speaking slowly and clearly. Speech is no longer an easy and natural means of communication in these instances.
While it is remarkable that cars can understand something that took billions of years of human evolution, the typical car recognition rate of 85% to 95% makes it a mediocre second-language speaker. As a result, speech becomes effortful and demanding, stealing attention from the road.
Because of these problems, my laboratory and laboratories around the world are trying to find ways to support the driver in creating mental images, in showing that the car wants to understand and enabling the car to understand at levels equal to or even better than a person.
And soon cars will be driving themselves, so that people can ignore the road and multitask their way to fighting for attention from each other, just as they do outside the car.
Source-http://edition.cnn.com
Japan completes feasibility study of Myanmar rail project
June 17, 2013
Utpal Bhaskar
(There is also a plan to establish a rail link between India and Myanmar, which will join Jiribam, Assam in India with Kalay in Myanmar. Photo: Ramesh Pathania/Mint)
Nay Pyi Taw/Yangon: Japan has completed a feasibility study on the proposed $1.7 billion modernization of the Yangon-Mandalay railway link—a major attempt towards developing Myanmar’s railway transport infrastructure.
The rehabilitation contract for the 640km link will be given to Japanese companies because the study was funded by a grant from Japan, saidThura U Thaung Lwin, deputy minister in Myanmar’s rail transportation ministry.
Japan is also expected to provide a loan to fund the project.
In another development, the Myanmar government plans to set up manufacturing facilities for diesel locomotives and rolling stock such as coaches and wagons in the country by 2015 with China’s help.
“The twin facilities will be operational within three years. The tender has been completed and the contract will be awarded to a Chinese company,” U Thaung Lwin said in an interview. He didn’t name the Chinese firm.
These facilities will require an investment of $100 million. While 90% of the investment will be covered through the Chinese loan, 10% will be contributed from Myanmar’s annual budget. The diesel engines will be manufactured in Nay Pyi Taw, the Myanmar capital, and the coaches and wagons will be built in Mandalay.
Myanmar’s attempt to improve its creaky infrastructure hold out the promise of lucrative contracts for foreign companies as governments such as Japan try to leverage their aid and loan programmes to step up their economic engagement with the South-East Asian economy.
According to a report by consulting firm McKinsey and Co., Myanmar needs $650 billion of investment by 2030 to support economic growth. Of this, $320 billion is required in infrastructure.
Myanmar has a railway network length of 4,000km of tracks, with 926 stations and a fleet of 436 locomotives. The state-run system’s 412 trains lug 1,281 passenger coaches and 3,204 wagons.
Much of the railway network is old and in urgent need of modernization.
A planned Trans-Asian Railway link aims to connect the railway systems of 28 countries in Asia, and Europe.
There is also a plan to establish a rail link between India and Myanmar, which will join Jiribam, Assam in India with Kalay in Myanmar.
India is also a part of the road project that seeks to help establish connectivity from Moreh in India to Mae Sot in Thailand via Myanmar.
“Transporting by rail instead of truck from Myanmar to Shanghai would reduce the cost to four times that of sea freight compared with ten times,” said the McKinsey report.
“Our estimates of freight costs from Chennai to Shanghai via Myanmar by ship and by overland routes consist of the following elements: sea shipment from Chennai to Yangon at a rate of $0.003 per km per tonne, and land transport from Yangon to Shanghai by way of the Muse/Ruili border crossing at a rate of $0.05 for trucking and $0.02 for rail,” the report added.
Such connectivity will also help in the economic integration of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean), comprising Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam. Trade between India and Asean was $76.3 billion in 2012-13 and is expected to increase to $100 billion by 2015.
“In the initial period during the development of our country, the rail network will be developed within our country. Going ahead in future, when our economy is developed, we will link up to neighbouring countries such as India, China and Thailand,” U Thaung Lwin said.
India has been involved in strengthening Myanmar’s railway infrastructure. Of a $500 million credit line extended to the Myanmar government by India, $155 million has been earmarked for developing railway infrastructure.
In a related development, a survey team from state-owned RITES Ltd has already conducted a feasibility study for the 250km link between India and Myanmar.
“This will be followed by a detailed feasibility report that will indicate the investment required for this project. What I have heard is that on the India side the terrain is very mountainous, so first you have to search for an appropriate rail alignment,” U Thaung Lwin said.
“On our side, it is much easier as most of the area is plain. The project’s execution depends on the funding for it. While we will put some investments from our side, the main funding will have to come from India,” he added.
This comes in the backdrop of joint working groups set up by Myanmar and India to determine the technical and commercial feasibility of cross-border rail links and shipping links. State-owned Shipping Corporation of India Ltd has already completed a feasibility study on a liner between the two countries. According to the study, running this service would result in a yearly loss of Rs.28 crore.
Source_http://www.livemint.com
Bank of America shifts some projects back to US from India
May 20, 2013
Bank of America Corp., the second largest US lender by assets, has started to shift a small part of the projects it had awarded to India’s software companies to local firms or its own centres to ward off political backlash against jobs being outsourced to India. Bank of America,
which has given contracts worth millions of dollars to companies such as Tata Consultancy Services Ltd (TCS) and Infosys Ltd—India’s top two software exporters—as well as Accenture Plc, will bring back some of its information technology (IT) projects to service providers in the US or to their own centres, according to at least two people familiar with the development, who requested anonymity.
The move comes at a time when North American and European clients of India’s $108 billion IT industry are cutting spending on technology because of economic headwinds. For the year ended 31 March, Indian software exports revenue grew by 10.2%—the slowest since the Lehman Brothers collapse in 2008 triggered a global financial meltdown. The Charlotte, North Carolina-based bank joins the ranks of other large American corporations, including General Motors Co. and American Express Co., that have recently moved projects back to their own centres. The companies are sending jobs back to US to fight criticism over outsourcing in the US and in response to rising labour and infrastructure costs in India.
American Express, which has resumed most of its projects with Indian vendors, had temporarily halted outsourcing projects to software vendors in India last year, due to disruptions caused in its US operations by Hurricane Sandy. “There’s a growing feeling that not all work should be moved offshore. Many companies are starting to believe that not all work should be going to a talent factory,” said one of the people mentioned above. Some of the projects are being sent to centres owned by the companies in India.
“Some banks have really well-run captives (in India), with a cost base that is way lower than third parties. They have a much stronger ability to drive productivity in house than through third parties. They’re doing it incrementally, but to great effect,” said the same person. Bank of America did not respond to emails seeking comment last week and on Monday. India’s top IT firms, including TCS and Infosys, declined to comment, citing client confidentiality. Last year, General Motors, which had contracts worth billions of dollars with Indian and multinational service providers, announced that nearly 90% of its IT works would be done by in-house staff in three-five years. American Express had also temporarily halted projects to software vendors in India last year.
In 2002, Bank of America first signed outsourcing agreements with TCS, Infosys and Accenture, according to data provided by outsourcing advisory firm Everest Group. The company also signed contracts with Aon-Hewitt and Hewlett-Packard Co. owned Electronic Data Systems in 2004. To be sure, this move is not a sign that large clients such as Bank of America and American Express are bringing back their entire IT operations back in-house, like General Motors did last year. “They (clients) are not going to bring everything or big chunks back, but it will be a small part that they’re going to bring in-house,” said Ben Trowbridge, chief executive of outsourcing advisory firm Alsbridge Inc.
He declined to comment on whether Bank of America was bringing projects back in-house, but noted that Bank of America was one that had heavily advertised on hiring more people for their IT operations in the US. “Offshore outsourcing is becoming more expensive as the cost of labour in countries like India continues to rise. Also, attrition and movement between companies continues to happen and is growing,” said Debashish Sinha, chief marketing officer at Systems In Motion, a US-based software services provider. “Overall cost of offshoring has gone up…what companies are seeing is a structural shift in the way IT gets delivered with a lot of the infrastructure moving to the cloud.” Banks and financial services companies are also cutting spending on IT, which experts feel might hurt future revenue growth prospects for Indian companies. “Companies like GM, Procter and Gamble, Bank of America, AmEx—they’re not moving everything, they’re starting to move more of it though,” said the first person, who requested anonsSymity.
Source -http://constructionsphere.com
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