A road diet is a technique in transportation planning where the numbers of travel lanes of a roadway cross-section and/or effective width are reduced to achieve systemic improvements. It entails converting a four-lane, undivided roadway to a two-lane roadway plus a two-way, left-turn lane by removing a travel lane in each direction. The remaining roadway width can be converted to bike lanes, on-street parking or sidewalks, according to the Institute of Transportation Engineers’ “Road Diet Handbook:

Setting Trends for Livable Streets Web Seminar” (view a PDF at http://lcmpoweb.las-cruces.org/Training/Road%20Diet/Road%20Diet%20Supplement.pdf). Work could begin as early as next year.

It’s Showtime in Vegas!

The trade show the whole of the North American construction industry looks to is almost here . . . and not a moment too soon.

It’s been a lonnnngggggg three years since CONEXPO-CON/AGG absolutely wowed equipment buyers, sellers, users and makers alike. Longtime industry observers termed the 2008 edition the best version ever of this world-renowned industry trade show held every three years. The record-breaking size and traffic at the 2008 show was only matched by the innovation and product range on display. But, within months, a recession hit the industry as never before. Ever since, it’s been a slow old path to recovery.

But with the arrival of 2011, and the excitement surrounding the looming next CONEXPO-CON/AGG, the buzz is back in the construction biz. Equipment manufacturers and suppliers have spent much of the interim since the last show ramping up with new products, services and technologies for an engaged, savvy, smart market champing the bit to get down to work.

Running March 22-26 at the Las Vegas Convention Center, CONEXPO-CON/AGG 2011 is the gathering place this year for all construction-related industries. There, you’ll see, for the first time unless you’ve been outside the continent, the Wirtgen W 200 and W 210 cold milling machines. Or, perhaps, you’ll be captivated by the new GOMACO 4400 barrier machine, the improved LeeBoy 8816B asphalt paver or the Terex foray into the skid-steer business.

And then there’s the Caterpillar on-highway vocational truck – a much anticipated and speculated-about new product family launch from the world’s largest equipment manufacturer. The arrival of the new Class 8 vocational truck, officially kept under wraps in North America by Caterpillar specifically for a CONEXPO-CON/AGG unveiling, represents the next stage in a strategy in which Caterpillar withdrew from manufacturing and supplying on-highway engines for other truck OEMs in order to compete directly against those truck makers in the vocational market.

Indeed, the gloves are off. And, as is tradition, Las Vegas is the place to be. To register for CONEXPO-CON/AGG 2011, visit www.conexpoconagg.com v