Around the Globe: October 2018

Asia

GlobalData reports construction output in the member states of the Association of South-East Asian Nations (ASEAN) should expand by over 6 percent yearly on average during 2018 to 2022.

Belgium

• Experienced senior bitumen and asphalt industry professional and former EAPA Secretary General Max von Devivere is the new person heading up Eurobitume Benelux, the national presence of Eurobitume in the Netherlands, Belgium and Luxemburg. Max took over from Theo Terlouw, who stepped down after seven productive years in the role, Aug. 1.
• Then, Sept. 1, widely-recognised bitumen industry professional Siobhan McKelvey became the new director general of Eurobitume, taking over from Aimé Xhonneux, who led the organisation for six years and drove Eurobitume’s successful restructuring, national integration and significant membership growth. Previously marketing director for Nynas Bitumen and the immediate past president of Eurobitume, McKelvey plans to continue Eurobitume’s evolution.

India

India’s Directorate General of Foreign Trade (DGFT) has removed the ban of bitumen import into India, according to Petrosil Media’s Bitumart, and India’s bitumen import was up by 40 percent in June 2018 compared to the same period in 2017.

Singapore

Check out the 14th Argus Bitumen Trading Asia, taking place Oct. 17 through 19 in Singapore. It’s co-located with Pavement Technology Asia. Get more information here.

Sweden

Aug. 29, Volvo Construction Equipment and its customer Skanska began testing the viability of its Electric Site concept at Skanska’s Vikan Kross quarry, near Gothenburg, Sweden. The system, which incorporates electric and autonomous Volvo machines, will run in a real production environment for 10 weeks—delivering an anticipated 95 percent reduction in carbon emissions and 25 percent reduction in total cost of operations.

United States

The U.S. Department of Transportation’s Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) announced Aug. 21 that it was seeking public comment on revising four specific areas of current hours-of-service (HOS) regulations. The Advanced Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (ANPRM) responds to widespread construction industry concerns and sought feedback from the public to determine if HOS revisions may alleviate unnecessary burdens placed on drivers while maintaining safety on our nation’s highways and roads. It looked at four areas specifically: expanding the current 100 air-mile “short-haul” exemption from 12 hours on-duty to 14 hours on-duty, to be consistent with the rules for long-haul truck drivers; extending the current 14-hour on-duty limitation by up to two hours when a truck driver encounters adverse driving conditions; revising the current mandatory 30-minute break for truck drivers after eight hours of continuous driving; and reinstating the option for splitting up the required 10-hour off-duty rest break for drivers operating trucks that are equipped with a sleeper berth compartment. The National Electrical Contractors Association (NECA) reports compliance with the electronic logging device (ELD) rule has reached nearly 99 percent across the trucking industry. Get information on current HOS regulations at this link.

California

Make plans to attend the 2018 Argus Biofuels & Carbon Markets Summit Oct. 22 through 24 in Napa Valley, California. Visit https://bit.ly/2JBTDh2 to register.

Colorado

The Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) is a sponsor of the inaugural Transportation Resilience Innovations Summit and Exchange (RISE) taking place Oct. 9 through 10 in Denver. The Transportation RISE is designed to bring together state DOTs, senior leaders, practitioners, consultants, academics an more to share state-of-the-practice information about how to consider transportation system resilience practices in decision making.

Florida

• Help Construction Angels raise funds for the families of fallen construction workers at the Construction Angels Black Tie Masquerade Gala this Oct. 27. The evening starts with a cocktail hour before a plated dinner and dancing in the ballroom at the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in Lighthouse Point, Florida. Visit here to get register.
• Make a note of this year’s Asphalt Contractors Association of Florida 42nd annual Asphalt Conference and Trade Show, taking place at the Wyndham Orlando Resort Nov. 27-28. The registration deadline is Nov. 9 here.

Georgia

Get registered for the 1st International Conference on Stone Matrix Asphalt (SMA) Nov. 5-7 at the Westin Peachtree Plaza Hotel in Atlanta at this link. And watch for the project story of the Illinois Tollway’s success with SMA in the November issue of AsphaltPro.

Illinois

The Pavement Preservation and Recycling Alliance (PPRA), Glen Ellyn, Illinois, has launched the RoadResource.org digital hub with more than 500 pages of information about pavement preservation, recycling and optimized network management.

Maryland

The National Asphalt Pavement Association (NAPA), Lanham, Maryland, has published Structural Design Guidelines for Porous Asphalt Pavements to help ensure new porous asphalt roadways provide reliable performance under traffic. The guide is written by Charles W. Schwartz, Ph.D., and Kevin D. Hall, Ph.D., P.E., with the support of the NAPA-SAPA Pavement Economics Committee’s Pavement Design Task Group and is available as a PDF download here.