roads

Venezuela’s biggest problem is not narcolanchas. Is that the US has reopened Roosevelt Roads after 20 years closed

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The United States has carried out A second attack Against an alleged vessel of Venezuelan drug traffickers in the Caribbean, ordered by Trump, who assured that it was “narcoterrorist” and spread, againan aerial video of the impact that three dead would have left. The problem is that it has not been possible to verify that the boat belonged to a poster or to transport drugs. Actually, the most worrying thing for Venezuela is kilometers from the nation. Second attack. As We countat the beginning of the month there was another attack against a “drug ship” attributed to the Aragua train leaving 11 deathsin a context of American naval reinforcement in the area with eight ships (including destroyers, a cruise, an amphibious assault ship and a nuclear submarine) and a hard line expressed by Marco Rubio of “fly” suspicious vessels. For its part, Nicolás Maduro He has denounced The last attack as an “aggression” in international waters and a pretext to force a regime change, stating that communications with Washington are broken except for migrant repatriation efforts, and rejecting the accusations To lead the “Los Soles poster”, although the United States raised to 50 million dollars the reward for information that leads to its capture. An operational piece. Time will say what is the scope of Washington’s plans, but a track is offered by the old Naval Station Roosevelt Roadsclosed in 2004 and largely delivered to the Government of Puerto Rico. The reason? USA He has reopened it as a node of operations for the campaign against drug trafficking in the Caribbean and to sustain pressure on Maduro’s Venezuelan regime. The arrival of F-35B furtive fightersadded to load flights C-5 Galaxy and C-17 Globemaster IIIas well as the presence of MV-22 Osprey and helicopters CH-53K of the IWO Jima Amphibious Readiness Group and the 22nd Marine Expeditionary Unit, has converted the current José Aponte de la Torre airport, into CEIBA, into a activity center growing. Air Force personnel have reactivated the operability of the control tower, while grounding equipment They load and download Material to support imminent operations, recovering the logistics pulse of an installation that for years seemed definitely numb. A “city-base.” With a gigantic surface at the eastern end of the main island, Roosevelt Roads combines a track of more than 3 km Able to host practically all the American air inventory with a deep water port suitable for surface ships and submarines, a binomial that singular it in the Caribbean arch. That Air-Mar duality It returns to place it as a support point for regional scope maneuvers and as a fast deployment platform, functions that the installation already performed for decades, now reissued in a context of transnational crime, maritime surveillance and need for expeditionary mobility. Ohio Uss Maryland class ballistic missile submarine at the Roosevelt Roads Naval Station, 1997 Growth in the Cold War. They remembered Twz analysts that the idea of ​​placing a large base in East Puerto Rico He was born in 1919when Franklin Delano Roosevelt, then Undersecretary of the Navy, explored the area and tried it strategic for the Caribbean control. Inaugurated in 1943 And baptized in his honor, the base was conceived as cornerstone of the regional defense, with protected anchoring, a major aerodrome and industrial capabilities capable of sustaining a good part of the Atlantic fleet in war conditions. Reorient as Naval Station in 1957his footprint expanded during the Cold War before the perception of Cuba as a threat aligned with the USSR, becoming a large support center for the sixth fleet and hosting the Naval Communications Station of Puerto Rico after attacks that damaged equipment in another location. Over time, the “city-base” came to add More than one hundred miles of interior roads already support operations that go from the Dominican Republic and Haiti to Granada and Panama, a reflection of their centrality in the American military architecture of the hemisphere. Aerial view of the base Slope. Roosevelt Roads’s operational link with Vieques’ shooting polygon marked his reason for being For six decadesbut also fed a social answer sustained by civil victims and environmental damage. He End of bombing In 2003 emptied its main mission and, in full strategic turn after 11-S towards campaigns in the Middle East and Central Asia, the base entered the BRAC closing process. The Marina transferred thousands of homes, schools, profits and a hospital to the government of Puerto Rico, a decision held by those who rejected militarization, but opened An economic hole of great draft in the CEIBA region and adjacent municipalities. Operational reactivation. Despite the formal closure, Roosevelt Roads never disappeared completely from the functional map: in 2017 It served as a platform For the help effort after Hurricane Maria, demonstrating the usefulness of its infrastructure integrated in emergency situations. On August 31, the Large scale return of the Navy to support the training and operations of the 22nd Meu visibly reactivated its logistics chain, its air traffic and its role as a “link” of a reinforced anti -drug architecture, with multiplier effects on other facilities of the island that operate in tandem. The debate in Puerto Rico. While a defense official rules out, for now, permanent reopening, the drive grows on the island to return to Roosevelt Roads A stable status. Senate resolution 286, driven by senators Nitza Morán Trinidad and Carmelo Ríos Santiago, proposes to audit the state of the old base and study its eventual reallocation for security purposes National under the army. The argument is based on A double promise: contribute to the defense of the Caribbean and the Americas and, at the same time, reactivate an economic engine that for decades irrigated employment, services and investment in CEIBA and surroundings. The memory of the social costs associated with Vieques lives today with the evidence that the installation, properly fit into concrete missions and with strict environmental minimums, can generate regional activity and resilience. Possible scenarios. Without a defined temporal horizon (or “official”) for the Caribbean Operation of Washingtonthe … Read more

We are running out of a key material to build roads and homes. And the guilt has the war in Ukraine

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In the middle of the month of May a photo seemed to have sneaked between the “normality” of some remote roads from Teruel. The constant coming and going of loaded trucks up to clay He had the answer to thousands of kilometers, in the epicenter of the war in Ukraine. The shortage of the material because of the conflict had found a solution in southern Europe. But now it is, perhaps, more dangerous. We are running out of TNT. From the boom to the agency. I told it a few hours ago The New York Times. For more than a century, Trinitrotoluene (TNT) was a pillar of the American military and civil industry, with millions of tons produced for The two world wars and the second half of the twentieth century. Cheap and abundant (it cost just 50 cents per pound), it became key input for projectiles, pumps and the construction of roads, infrastructure and homes. The problem? That its production generated highly toxic waste, which led to the closing of the last national plant In the eighties. Since then, Washington became dependent on foreign suppliers, mainly in China, Russia, Poland and Ukraine, which assumed the environmental costs of their manufacture. The impact of war. The Russian invasion in 2022 transformed that scheme. The United States stopped recycling explosives of obsolete arsenals, by deciding allocate your production to kyiv. At the same time, Russia and China They cut Exports to the West, leaving the American industry without access to its usual sources. Thus, the European conflict triggered a World TNT scarcity with direct consequences for arms production and, very important, also for civil sectors such as mining and construction. Effects. The lack of TNT Threat with slowing down Infrastructure projects, from roads and bridges to the supply of cement and basic materials. He underlined the Times that the usual procedure in quarries (where minimal loads of TNT detonate ammonium nitrate mixtures with other compounds) has been affected by the reduction of supplies. The use of drones, 3D scanners and digital calculations allows more precise and safe explosions, capable of moving More than 100,000 tons of rock in a single shot, but without TNT the processes lose efficacy, which raises costs and threatens the availability of raw materials. The United States response. Given the shortage, Congress approved the construction of a new TNT plant in Kentucky, with a Budget of 435 million of dollars. It is planned to start operating in 2028, but, and very important, it will only produce for military use, without supplying the civil sector. No doubt, this reflects a clear priority: ensure the autonomy of the military-industrial complex against external dependence, although leaving without immediate solution the problem of extractive and construction industries. In parallel, the pentagon works in Diversify suppliers and increase the internal production of other explosives and propellant. Alternatives and scenarios. At present, the industry seeks substitutes such as The Petn (Tetranitrate Pentaeritritol), which is already manufactured in three US facilities, although its capacity is limited and it is not clear if it can be climbed quickly. Meanwhile, the country’s army has given signs of having assured Additional TNT sources out of Poland, although Without revealing details. In any case, the situation raises a strategic dilemma: the dependence on obsolete material but irreplaceable in many processes, whose absence threatens both the war capacity and the stability of basic sectors of the economy. TNT’s scarcity exposes, one more timehow a distant war can disrupt critical supply chains and force industrial powers to rethink their energy, technological and military security. Image | Operational Command “West” In Xataka | Ukraine has entered a phase so deranged with the drones that his drones are knocking themselves to themselves In Xataka | Someone has taken a look at Russia’s satellite images and has discovered something: it is running out of tanks

Europe has realized that the rearme must start on the roads. A Russian invasion would unleash a fatal congestion

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In 2022 there was already talk of this: having a better army does not help much if it cannot be launched. That year was the beginning of many meetings in Europe with the Russian Ukraine Invasion as a fuse. Then there was talk of rearmebut attention also focused on something that Europe has just elevated in the priority list: the need to prepare roads, railways, ports and airports for the rapid movement of troops and tanks. Background: Russia. European military vulnerability. Had three years ago The political environment that the debate on the real capacity of Europe to resist an eventual Russian attack had put a fundamental aspect that usually is hidden behind rearmament ads: it is not enough to have more tanks or soldiers if the necessary infrastructure To move them quickly. Roads, railroads, ports and airports of the European Union show serious limitations when it comes to supporting the weight and volume of modern armored ones, or absorbing an intense military traffic in times of crisis. The east. As He warned then The American Lieutenant retired Ben Hodges, excommanting of the United States Army in Europe, the problem is aggravated the more advances east: bridges unable to support German, British or American combat cars and mountainous routes that hinder access to key countries such as Romania. In case of emergency, bottlenecks could delay the deployment of allied forces just at the points where they would be needed more urgently, such as the passage of Suwałki between Poland and Lithuania or the routes towards the Black Sea. The first mechanism. To deal with these shortcomings, The EU launched The mechanism connect Europe (CEF), an infrastructure fund that also covers military mobility. However, the budget for this mission was drastically reduced: of the 6,500 million euros initially proposed only 1.7 billionand that money, the commission ended up assigning 340 million to 22 projectsthe majority of small scale and focused on central Europe. Among them They highlighted the improvement of rail links between Antwerp and Germany, the modernization of two airports in Poland and the connection of the Military Tapa base in Estonia. Modest support were also included to large strategic projects Like Rail Balticathe railway corridor of 5.8 billion euros that will connect the Baltic countries with Poland, or Via Baltica, the road that crosses the region, which it received just 60 million of community support. The new warning. Back to the present, he counted this week The Financial Times That the European Transport Commissioner, Apostols Tzitzikostas, has re -launched a warning that shook the foundations of the European defense: the continent It is not prepared For a large -scale war against Russia because its roads, bridges and rail networks are inappropriate for rapid transfer of troops and armored. According to explainedmany bridges are Too closetoo old or directly non -existent, which would prevent the transit of tanks from, for example, 70 tons thought to operate in a matter of hours. In practice, moving military forces from west to east of Europe would take weeks or even months, an unacceptable lag in case of a sudden Russian offensive. The strategy. Solution? To correct this structural weakness, Brussels now work on a 17,000 million plan of euros that provides for the modernization of 500 critical projects along four major military corridors that will cross the continent. It is a design made in coordination with NATO and its military controls, whose details remain classified for security reasons. The idea is that troops and heavy equipment can move in a matter of hoursfar reducing the reaction time to an aggression. In addition to reinforcing bridges and adapting roads, it will be sought Eliminate bureaucratic obstacles To prevent military convoys from being held on European borders by customs protocols that, in times of war, would be a fatal ballast. The context of rearme and Russia. The new plan is enrolled in a broader effort of rearme Continental that We have been counting. The European Union studies a package of up to 800,000 million euros to reinforce its defensive autonomyin part in response to the pressures of Washington and the possibility of a substantial reduction of the US military presence in Europe. To this is added The warning The NATO Secretary General, Mark Rutte, who in June warned that Moscow could attack a member of the Alliance before 2030. The message of Tzitzikostas fits this urgency logic: without the ability to move troops agilely, any European defense plan would be on wet paper in front of Russian military machinery. The budget struggle. Although the European Commission has included military mobility in its proposal for the 2028-2034 budget, diplomats warn that the initial figure of 17,000 million It could be diluted In negotiations. This budget fragility is seen as a dangerous contradiction: While considering the expense in defense 5% of GDP (With 1.5% specifically intended for military infrastructure), some Member States (Spain at the head) They resist to assume the costs of such vast modernization. Tzitzikostas, meanwhile, insists in which Europe cannot afford to continue depending on others or be disarmed by its own bureaucratic slowness. The modernization of bridges, tunnels and railways is not just a matter of civil transport: it has become the backbone of the future European defense. One thing is clear for curator: an invasion would not wait for forms to be resolved or to reinforce a bridge. Image | 7th Army Training, US Army Europe, European Roads In Xataka | If Europe rearma we will find a problem that will affect us all: cars and trains In Xataka | The “rearme” in Europe has encountered an obstacle that neither US imagined: Spain

The works sandwich on roads and Metro converts mobility into a puzzle

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Mire where you look, there are works. It doesn’t matter when you read this if you live in Madrid. It doesn’t matter whether or not you are retired. If something must be seen in Madrid are works. Because the city has entered a reformist spiral that touches all sticks. And if public transport should be the alternative to the private car … Guess. Yes, it is also in works. A summer of the least placid. It is not Madrid the best city to visit in summer. Cars, asphalt and high buildings are the perfect combination for turn the city into an oven. Much more if we consider that they shine Hard squares through the city center, which is about Give emergency solutionseither The parks are closed. But those of us who live in Madrid found a good part in spending the months of July and August in the city: it was calm. The usual river of people becomes a stream, some leisure can be done when heat stops squeezing and, above all, one comes to work at a time because the traffic jams did not exist. Today, that is a thing of the past. Mire where you look. Right now, it doesn’t matter if you use the private car as public transport: Madrid is collapsed. Every morning the traffic bulletin gives the usual notices on the radio. But to the usual traffic jams are added notices that have become repeat offenders. The city had not been seen in an equal. In The country They remember an anecdote that dated in 2001. Then Danny de Vito, who was promoting a film in the city, ironized ensuring that he loved Madrid but that “he will win a lot the day they find the treasure.” Impossible by car. If you travel by car you have to be careful with the entrance to the A-5, The great underground of one of the main arteries of entry to the city that, in addition, is causing problems with neighbors. Whoever access here inside the city will verify how the usual four lanes in the direction have become two lanes with a winding layout to save the cranes. Right now, you can no longer access the M-30 tunnel but those who get there await more works in sales, where you want cover the M-30 to generate a huge green space that connects the linear city neighborhood with that of Salamanca. Neither in the northern zone are freed from the works. In the current four towers A huge park has been projected Under which the connection between Sinesio Delgado with the northern knot (where they connect the M-30 and M-40) has been projected. Again, the intention is that in the upper area you can enjoy a huge green zone hiding cars in a tunnel. Public transport. Taking into account that circulating in Madrid with a private vehicle now resembles a Mario Kart race (Asphalt operation included)public transport should be the solution. But those who have chosen to leave the car at home and use interurban entry buses to Madrid for the A-5 have long known that it is not a simple task. The residents of Alcorcón have asked that camp military land can be used as a deterrent parking. Thus, drivers can connect with subway and vicinity. The problem is that In the Metro they will find a partially closed line 6affecting about 400,000 travelers. To line 6 are added from next week the Metro line 7 workswith the park stations of the avenues, Cartagena and Alonso Canoperativa. Who will expect to find refuge in vicinity, there are also bad news. Because right now there is Cortes in the C-5 Between Villaverde Alto and Ambassadors and until August The suns tunnel will be closedleaving unused the station station (nearby) and cutting the passage between Chamartín and Atocha of lines C-3 and C-4. Exchangers. Did you think we had finished? Well, to all these inconveniences we must add great exchangers that are under works. In Chamartín, remodeling is still underway And right now you have to arm yourself with patience and go with time if you want to take a bird. The Count of Casal exchangerthat has added traffic cuts in the entrance tunnel by the A-3 and that will serve as a key node in the Metro line 11 union with line 12the circular section that serves all urban nuclei in southern Madrid. And frozen projects. To all of the above you have to add the remodeling works of Metro line 7bthe connection between the Metropolitan Stadium and the Henares Hospital whose works were subject to a great controversy because they have caused irreversible damage to the homes of some neighbors. Click on the image to go to the original tweet Click on the image to go to the original tweet Click on the image to go to the original tweet Click on the image to go to the original tweet Constant anger. This entire barulo of works that has implications in filming traffic, in the subway and in vicinity is causing a fed up among the residents of the city that can be easy to trace on social networks. The chaos was complete yesterday July 21. A drop in yesterday systems in the subway caused Line 10 delays. To this was added a breakdown in a catenary between the stations of Laguna and Ambassadors, causing a funnel of travelers in that southwest. To close the circle, also the Bicimad public bicycle services was fallen and faults were recorded in the North Light Metro Line (ML1). Throughout the summer, social networks are broadcasting live the chaos that are lived in the Metro and in Surroundings where the stations are full and travelers have to miss trains because they are crowded. Photo | Madrid City Council and Community Transport of Madrid In Xataka | Guide not to be lost in Madrid with the megaobra and underground of the A-5: deadlines, traffic cuts and public transportation

Drones have become the great threat of Ukraine. So you are covering kilometers of roads with nets

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Neither tanks nor mines nor sophisticated fighters. What really removes the dream of the soldiers who fight in the Ukraine War (and it is a feeling shared by both sides) are The dronesunmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) loaded with explosives. So much so that the military have baptized the 10 km strip that extends to each side of the front as “Zone of Death”an area infested with remote piloted drones and that can neutralize their objectives with a much lower investment than would require a similar missile. The UAV play such an important role in the war that a curious picture is left: kilometers and more kilometers of road protected with networks. A landscape covered with networks. To complicated problems, imaginative solutions. The France-Presse (AFP) agency has published A chronicle in which he tells how the war between Ukraine and Russia is having a curious effect on the wide range of the front: it is covering it with networks. Networks and more green networks that are installed on post -high posts along kilometers of road in the region of Donetskone of the great stages of war. AFP recounts how Ukrainians are riding that vast tangle of networks to cover their main supply routes, but the panorama is not very different on the other side of the front. The Russians have also set to work to perform a similar task. “Let’s weave nets, just like spiders! We do it for birds without extremely dangerous feathers,” Ironiza In April a nicknamed ‘Ares’. But what birds are those? Drones Drones swarms, surveillance vehicles, kamikazes or equipped with explosives that suppose a serious threat to soldiers and civilians. With meshes the military seeks to repel them in a seemingly as simple as effective way. “When a drone impacts the network, a short circuit occurs and cannot attack vehicles,” Explain To the French agency Denis, a commander of the 27 -year -old engineers. The initiative is not entirely new. A few months ago We told you Already how Ukraine was taking advantage of tons of old Danish fishing networks to repel Russian drones. Now already measure that the Ukraine War is on its way to turning three and a half its use seems to be extending on the front. In March a small sailor town of Jutlandia, Thyborøn, It was news precisely by donating 450 tons of drag networks made of nylon fibers. In origin, meshes were thought to capture tons of fish, but they have also been useful to keep drones away from strategic objectives, especially as the expanding the Fiber optic modelscapable of making fun of devices that cut the connection with the pilots. The drone war. It may seem exaggerated, but if for something the Ukraine War is highlighting, it is precisely because of the role that drones and the threat they represent for soldiers. Reuters cites today Internal reports of kyiv that confirm that the UAV already represent about 69% of the attacks against Russian troops. Moreover, in 2024 they were behind 75% of the attacks undertaken against vehicles and equipment. They are percentages that far exceed those of the use of conventional artillery, which move between 15 and 18%. The great threat. Reuters cites a squad commander, Ivan, 35, who Openly recognize That the soldiers of both sides see the unmanned aerial vehicles already as the main threat to their lives. Your swarms too They take away the dream In the cities, kilometers away from the front. Yesterday Russia launched An attack against Dobropillia as part of an offensive that included the use of hundreds of drones. His role is so relevant that Mark Boris Andrijanic, Slovenian politician, has published An analysis in which it slides that an increase in drones financed by the West would allow war. Images | Ann-Sophie Qvarström (Flickr), Ministry of Defense of Ukraine (Flickr) and Trong Khiem Nguyen (Flickr) In Xataka | The Ukraine War is getting rid, first of all, with drones. And that is leaving an infinite fiber optic trail through the field

Tired of accidents with wild animals, Galicia has had an idea that already proves on its roads: Flasehar Jabalíes

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The data is not too updated by the DGT but the last counts leave no doubt: animals are a danger on secondary roads. According to traffic datain 2022, 35,661 accidents were counted with animals involved in them. In them, 505 people suffered wounds of diverse gravity and two people died. The problem is especially serious in some autonomous communities such as Castilla y León, where wild animals They often cross the road and put themselves at the driving of the vehicles. According to data from the Ministry of Territorial Policy and Democratic Memoryanimals are involved in 61% of accidents produced on roads in this region. Nor Galicia is left behind. If Castilla y León is the region most affected by this problem and represents 27% of accidents with animals that occur throughout the country, Galicia occupies the second positioncovering 17% of accidents of this type. To try to minimize this problem, the Xunta de Galicia has launched a system to try to prevent animals from crossing the road. The system has been launched on a Lugo road. Attention, loose wild boar In its official statement, the Xunta de Galicia is clear about what animal is one of the main causes: the wild boar. It was expected not to be a kangaroo, as has been seen recently crossing an Oia road. In recent years, Galicia coexists with a problem of wild wild boars. According to figures collected by The voice of GaliciaThis animal caused a total of 4.6 million euros in material damage in 2024. This figure takes into account the total expenditure that the region had to disburse both compensation and prevention. In this last game you can frame the system that is already being tested in “the LU -540 road (Viveiro – Cabreiros)between kilometric points 37+340 and 39+520, a stretch close to the intersection with the AG-64 “, explain from the regional government. The tested system lifts a virtual fence on the road when cars pass through it. That is, when the system detects that a vehicle is active active light alerts with flash and sound alerts oriented to the outside of the road. Thus, it is about deter the animal from crossing the road at that time and redirecting it away from the road. Using movement sensors, the system is activated by sections and is off if there are no cars in motion. When a vehicle passes, it activates the system as it advances the road. From the Xunta they also point out that the system is autonomous of the general network since it uses solar panels and batteries to stay active both day and night. This is only one of the interventions that, according to the Xunta, have been carrying out in recent years to reduce road accidents caused by the appearance of wild animals. They point out that they have worked reflective prisms and wolf synthetic urine on other roads to scare away wild species. In addition, in recent years it has been insisted on the importance of ecoducts or creating a “Green Bridge Network”. These uplinks are designed so that animals can cross large roads without leaving a natural environment. On the A-8 road as it passes through Kobaron and Montaño, close to Bilbao, There are already two approved. Photo | Nagy Szabi and Max Saeling In Xataka | What does the Animal Welfare Law say about how to take your pet in the car: obligations and fines

The remote roads of Teruel are filled with trucks loaded to the top of clay. The reason: Ukraine

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When in de February 2022 The Kremlin troops advanced on Ukraine a complex domino effect was activated that ended up letting himself be felt far beyond the battlefield. The war altered global geopolitics, the Financial systemthe agriculturethe energyhe air transportthe world market … and also (in a turn as unexpected as surprising) The national roads of the Maestrazgo and Bajo Aragón regions, in the province of Teruel. The pumps and bullets fly about 3,000 kilometers away, away from Aragon, but its effect is evident on Turolenses roads. There the war has unleashed an intense heavy traffic that is saturating the roads “Feeling of insecurity”. Aguaviva, more of Las Matas, Castellote, breast, mills and the Parras de Castellote are six municipalities of Teruel that in April They joined forcesnext to the town of Cuevas de Cañart, to send A joint letter to the Government of Aragon and the Provincial Council. In it basically they alerted a problem that worries the residents of the seven territories: in just a few years their roads have been filled with hundreds of trucks, which has generated concern for the security or the state of infrastructure. Accidents. The municipalities do not speak only of risks or abstract threats. His letter was written weeks after a truck collided Against a bus in Aguaviva and just two months after Another trailer I would have overturned after leaving the road, an incident that It was not new either. The result, as the mayor of Aguaviva recognized in April to the newspaper Heraldis that neighbors live with “a very large sense of insecurity.” That without counting on The deterioration which causes heavy traffic on tracks and roads that are not prepared for trucks. From asphalt to regional policy. The issue did not take to transcend the municipalities of the regions of Bajo Aragón and Maestrazgo to make the leap to regional policy. Teruel exists took the issue to the courts of Aragon, which A few weeks ago He claimed the regional government to seek a solution for Vials A-225 and A-226. In the background, the same problem: the transfer of hundreds of trucks, which according to some calculations overcome the 400 daily In Aguaviva, more than respectable figure if one takes into account that some live some 500 people. A few days ago the Diputación even went further and promised to invest 150,000 euros In the improvement of one of the roads affected by the trucks, the road that goes from the sale of La Pintada to Castellote by Molinos. A priori, money will be used to improve soft, correct the deformations caused by the daily transfer of trucks and renew the signaling. And why so many trucks? The key is what they transport. In their trailers they carry clay, raw material extracted from the MINES OF THE AREA For the ceramic industry and Castellón tile. That was for example the cargo of the truck that ended up colliding in Aguaviva against a bus or the one that overturned end of February. According to Ascer data (The employer of the sector nationwide) The ceramic industry represents around 22.2% of the industrial GDP of the Valencian Community and more than 32.2% of the total of Castellón’s GDP. As They point from The regionclay -loaded trucks leave Teruel and advance Morella, leaving an intense flow of vehicles that in some locations reaches several hundred daily. Recently the mayor of Castellote explained to The confidential That in the school where he works they have to keep the windows closed by the intense transfer of trucks that pass to about 300 meters from the center. “If I open them, I don’t hear the creatures,” he says. And what does it have to do with the Ukraine War? Simple. Ukraine is a huge supplier of the clay that is used in the manufacture of tiles. At the beginning of the war it was calculated that around the 70% of the raw material that imported the Spanish ceramic sector arrived from Donetsk, in the Donbás region. In February 2022 Ascer recognized his “worry” And the truth is that the sector has not taken to look for alternatives, including neighboring Mines de Aragón. In October 2022 Aragon News already pointed out that the clay mining of the region were seeing how their activity shot. If in 2020 the quarries of Teruel had produced a million tons, two years later it was expected that this volume exceeds the five million. And not just that. The increase in activity was accompanied by multiple studies to activate farms. The earthquake. Since 2022 the trend does not seem to have stopped. While Ukraine is still shaken by bombs and drone attacks, Teruel has seen how her clay mining was sued. The data of Aragon News are eloquent again: production has shot, with dozens and tens of permissions for farms. Joaquín Moreno, councilor of Utrillas and deputy of Teruel exists, calculates that with the outbreak of the Ukraine War the number of exploits and investigation licenses has been quintupled. Just a year ago Portsur de Castellón received The first ship With clay of Ukraine from the outbreak of the war, a cargo of 52,000 tons for the company Vesco Clays Spain. That has not prevented, however, that the peoples of Bajo Aragón and Maestranza warn of how they are affecting the changes in the sector to their roads. It is the (another) face B of the war between Russia and Ukraine. Images | Ministry of Defense of Ukraine (Flickr) and Manel Zaera (Flickr) In Xataka | Aragon wanted his children to eat more fruit at school. So he went to look for her 10,000 kilometers away

At the beginning of the 20th century European roads were a dust hell

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We complain a lot about them, but the asphalt is that Gray web that joins towns and cities around the world. Today are something we take for granted, but the roads we know Today they have just a century behind them. Beyond allowing the “soft” passage of vehicles, it was the element that allowed the car expansion At the beginning of the 20th century. And we owe everything to an accident in a town in England and dust hateors. John Loudon McAdam He was a Scottish engineer who had a vocation: build roads. He dedicated his life to perfecting these routes because he realized one thing: the traditional stone and earth were easily embodied and the maintenance was constant. In other parts of Europe the roads were also being perfected, but their method, baptized as ‘Macadán’ was the one who imposed. His idea was to raise the roads a bit and give them some inclination so that the water was stored on the sides. To make them more “waterproof”, stone and gravel were crushed and compacted. That was covered with a layer of sand and seems simple, but it was a revolution. Macadán road Macadan’s roads were smoother than stone, it was more resistant and drained better. In addition, it was cheap, so it seemed like a Win-Win For governments and passersby, right? Well … not so much. The main problem was the dust that constantly rose due to that outer sand layer, but soon the natural enemy of the macadan came: the self -propelled vehicle. The first cars were many things, but of course they were not popular. Not everyone could afford a car, but who did one had to spend some time shaking the dust after a trip along Macadán’s roads. The dust is not a friend of speed, since it is impregnated in the mechanical components, in the clothes and enters through the nasal and mouthpieces of the drivers and passengers. The chance that gave rise to modern roads Mcadam’s contribution was great, but also hit by the new century. This is how Edgar Purnell Hooley enters this story. This Welsh inventor was walking a good day of 1901 along a Derbyshire County road when he realized that part of the road was covered with something black. When he asked what had happened, he was told that a carriage had lost a barrel of tar, spilling on the road and, to try to cover it, someone poured a scum of nearby furnaces. The mixture had solidified and, without pretending, had created a section of smooth road, no dust or potholes. Hooley was lit the bulb and, neither short nor lazy, patented in 1902 the process of heating tar, mixing it with sand, crushed stone and other elements and compacting it. It was baptized as ‘Tarmacadam’ and it is the element that revolutionized the roads for that new ‘animal’: motorized horses. It seemed the ideal solution by reducing dust, having much lower maintenance than the macadan and maintaining those resistance properties to the inclement weather. Besides, Little by little it was improved adding resins and portland cement to the mixture. They soon wanted to try that ‘miracle’ and the Radcliffe Road de Nottingham converted on the first paved road in the world. The Babylonians already used the asphalt to perform some processes, but Hooley’s technique to mix scum and tar was the real revolution on the roads Launching tar in the London of the IGM Those eight kilometers showed that Tarmacadam was the mobility solution of the new century, but the car revolution was not only occurring in England. At the same time that Hooley patented his idea, Alberto I of Monaco confessed that he was fed up with the dust raised by the cars. Dust covered tourism was not attractive, so he asked a Swiss doctor named Ernest Guglielminetti to do something. “We only breathe dust, the flowers suffer and it is absolutely necessary to do something. Would you have any idea?” That was his Challenge/Prayer For Guglielminetti, who had an idea. He recalled that, during his work in Indonesia, part of the hospital floor was composed of wooden planks covered with tar to facilitate cleaning. So, he proposed to spread a mixture of hot tar, sand and records along forty meters in part of the land road surrounding the oceanographic museum. It was a success and they began to asphalt other roads. In addition, tar was abundant because it was a residue of gas plants for municipal lighting that, until it began to take advantage of roads, was thrown … into the sea. Guglielminetti and his machine to heat the tar Unlike Hoolyy, Guglielminetti did not patent absolutely anything, but remained very active perfecting the tar mixture, even participating in the First International Road Congress held in 1908 in Paris. It was there when He explained that dreamed with a network of thousands of kilometers of paved roads connecting all the countries of the world. The conclusion of that congress was that tar was the ideal solution, but before it, there was already a League against dust that promoted the benefits of the asphalting. Everything developed quite fast, something logical if we take into account that the car also began to popularize. Putting Spain as examplein 1900 there were three cars enrolled. In 1905 there were already 275, but in 1910 the figure was almost 4,000. That rapid evolution and adoption of the car required a renovation of roads. With the passage of time, the tar stopped used Due to its adverse health effects, being replaced by oil derivatives, but maintaining the basis of what Hoolyy and Guglielminetti devised. And, returning to the Welsh inventor, the story did not end too well. Tarmac registered as a brand and founded the TAR Macadam Syndicate Ltd, but he was not a businessman and sold Sir Alfred Hickman. In addition to Wolverhampton parliamentarian, he had a siderurgy, so the scorus for the asphalting came out for free. He … Read more

More and more countries in the world are painting their colored roads. The goal is the same: reduce accidents

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A road with a huge red line. Another with a green line that shines in the dark. Stripes to the sides, circles in the curves and even pedestrian crossings that have become murals. The fight to contain traffic accidents is living its own fever: the fever of painting roads and streets. And it makes a lot of sense. Really It’s about deceiving our brain. When a driver or motorist perceives that it circulates through a narrower step, he lifts his foot from the accelerator instinctively. The same happens if you approach a crossing where the entire ground has been painted to get attention. It is obvious that this narrowing does not exist. Everything is in our mind. It is proven that a vertical signal does not generate the same perception of risk as road paint. Simply because a signal is easy to ignore it but when the view detects that the ground has a lower “free” surface a signal is sent to the brain that perceives a greater risk and the driver decreases speed. The samples are multiple and are being tested with them worldwide. Of course, Spain is also doing its own tests. A generalized illusion It doesn’t matter if we talk about Spain or any other place in the world. The human being behaves the same in Scotland, the United States, Malaysia or Andalusia. We have the test that in all these places solutions are sought to a recurring problem with an equally recurring mechanism: paint the soil. Within the cities The most striking cases are found in countries where urban distribution is designed for the car (United States) or where a road crosses a town (France). Nor are the evidence in school environments or small populations where it is common to cross walking (Spain). The first example is not only a test. As rescued in BloombergNew York City implemented Asphalt Art Initiativea project to draw large murals at conflicting crosses in the city. The results have been striking, before launching the project, 50% of the pedestrians who had suffered an outrage had suffered injuries. Painting the soil, the vehicles circulated more slowly and the percentage of pedestrians that referred injuries after an outrage had been reduced to 37%. Dragon teeth on a Madrid school Reducing the speed at which it circulates is especially important in these cases, The DGT He points out that at 30 km/h, the possibility of dying in an outrage is 10% but that at 50 km/h, the risk increases to 80%. That is why the measures taken with the educational centers where in recent years have grown up of those known as “Dragon teeth” They aspire to generate the sensation of narrowing in the streets. In Spain we have other cases. El Campillo, municipality located 70 kilometers from Huelva, He is studying If painting on zebra crossings that generate a 3D perspective It can help reduce drivers. It is not a new idea, much less, it is something that has also been tested in Iceland and USA. Of course, in the latter case they received criticism from the Federal Highway Administrationwho claimed that it was simply a false security sensation for pedestrians but doubted their direct impact on specific cases. Criticism focuses on that, really, there is nothing that really prevents the driver from continuing to circulate at a high speed. However, in France they have another idea. Tired that Beuné’s journey (a town located near Angers, west of the country) was taken as a real highway, the neighbors decided to paint the streets of the municipality. And the results were positive … at least As far as your perception is concerned because they recognized not having data from whether drivers had really reduced speed. Click on the image to go to the original publication More slowly Getting drivers to raise their foot from the accelerator when passing through a town is one of the biggest problems with which a town can fight. Especially if, as in the case of This Italian peopleit is the road that starts in two the municipality. In that case, Acchetico, a town of just over 100 inhabitants, ended up installing a radar that sanctioned 58,000 drivers in 10 days. It was a desperate measure. In Spain, work has also been worked on the secondary roads, although otherwise. In recent years, those painted on the ground that generate the feeling that the lane is narrowed before reaching a town have been popularized. It is exactly the same that is used in the streets of the School Centers although in this case they are at the entrance of some municipalities such as Nava de Roa (Burgos). It is only one of the examples that the DGT has launched in recent years. In northern Madrid, road marks such as implemented in Catalonia where some circles located in the line that divides the two lanes helps the bikers draw the curves safely and remove some gas in their path. It is a pilot test that has also been implemented in other places such as Austria. In the latter case they affirm that the simple road marks of the soil has an immediate effect in the perception of the motorist. With an investment of just 3,000 euros, it was estimated that the percentage of bikers who violated the norm and entered the opposite lane was 44%. Before painting the soil, 77% exceeded their lane. Specifically, the best data was reported from the Tyrol, where accidents had been reduced by 80%. Although the clearest example of recent years in Spain has been implemented by the DGT with a red line on a secondary road in Andalusia. On the A-355 road, which connects the populations of Marbella and Cártama, Traffic has painted a huge red line with the aim of reducing accidents on one of the most dangerous roads in Spain. When the road was created in 2014, a traffic of 7,000 cars was expected, today more than 20,000 vehicles are calculated daily. … Read more

There is a cosmic network of “roads” formed by gas and dark matter filaments. We have just captured it from Chile

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We know well that matter is not distributed in a form of all homogeneous throughout the observable universe. The galaxies like the one we live are great clusters of matter in which the stars are born and died, and with them other objects such as planets and asteroids. However, that is only part of the story. In sight. A group of researchers has achieved Capture directly and in “high definition” an image of the so -called cosmic network, a network of gas filaments that extend throughout millions of light years in the intergalactic space. He has done it from the VLT, the large telescope that the Southern European Observatory has installed in Chile. A cosmic network. The subject in the universe is not only concentrated in the galaxies. Moreover, the subject distributed in intergalactic space plays a fundamental role in the structure of our cosmos. Physical interactions lead to this matter to be distributed in an interesting way. He does it In immense filamentsgas clouds that form an immense network that connects the galaxies around it. The gas that accumulates in this network of “cosmic highways” is the one that feeds the stars of the bright galaxies located at the intersections of this network. Huge, and almost invisible. In addition to the gas that feeds the stars, dark matter also plays an important role in the structuring of this network as indicated by the team responsible for this new image. Observing this dark matter is impossible today, but capturing the gas columns that accompany it, the “star fuel”, is possible. Hundreds of hours. Overcome this difficulty Requires dedicationeven for our most powerful telescopes. That is why capturing this image required hundreds of hours of observation by the VLT (Vary Large Telescope), The telescope of the European Observatory (ESO) installed in the Atacama desert, in Chile. The team resorted to the Muse instrument (Multi–Unit Spectroscopic Explorer), An advanced spectrograph installed in the Chilean telescope. The details of the process were published In an article In the magazine Nature Astronomy. In the image, in color, the diffuse gas that extends around and between the remarked galaxies can be seen. Davide Tornotti/University of Milano-Bicocca. Three million light years. The team used ultraprecisous data compiled by the telescope to create the most clear image ever achieved by one of the filaments that make up the cosmic network. The filament in question extends over three million light years and Connect two distant galaxieseach of them with its own supermassive black hole. “By capturing the dim light emitted by this filament, which has traveled for just under 12,000 million years to reach the Earth, we are able to accurately characterize its form,” Explain in a press release Davide Tornotti, co -author of the study. The team also highlights that the accuracy of the new data has allowed “Draw the border” between the gas of the galaxies themselves and all the subject that we associate with this cosmic web. And all through direct measurements. Validate the theory. In his study, the team used these direct observations to test the theoretical cosmological models. And with a positive result: “When comparing it to the new high definition image, we find a substantial agreement between theory and observations,” Tornotti indicated. Even so, the team also points out that they will continue working on the study of these structures. “One is none,” that is, with the image of one of these elements, it is not enough to draw generalizable conclusions about these key structures for our cosmos but as unknown as the filaments that make up the cosmic network. In Xataka | Is our Milky Way a zombie galaxy and we without knowing it? Image | Alejandro Benitez-Llambay/University of Milano-Bicocca/MPa/Davide Tornotti/University of Milano-Bicocca

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