On the road to greener and cleaner highways

LEICESTERSHIRE’S roads are getting greener and cleaner thanks to innovative recycled materials and carbonfriendly techniques being used to resurface highways.

Roadworks and disruption are set to continue across the county with improvements due to begin on the A47 bypass in the early summer. This follows work on the A426 Blaby and the A6 Market Harborough bypasses.

In a bid to be more environmentallyfriendly, Leicestershire County Council has used around 5,000 recycled tyres during the resurfacing of the A426 Blaby bypass.

Warm mix and lower energy materials were used to lay the courses of asphalt, instead of the traditional hot materials, saving around 22 tonnes of carbon.

In Blaby, new eco-friendly road markings are being trialled northbound on the bypass while the southbound carriageway has been marked with traditional thermoplastic markings.

This means that a direct comparison can be made on the wear and tear of both products.

Across all three bypass projects the county council is saving a total of 32 tonnes of carbon, the equivalent to the emissions generated by travelling over 165,000 miles in a standard car.

The trial is in line with the council’s pledge to become a carbon neutral council by 2030 and to achieve “net zero” across the county by 2045, five years earlier than the government target.

Councillor Trevor Pendleton, cabinet member for highways and transport, said: “Using recycled and carbon friendly components for our road improvements emphasises our commitment to improving the environment.”

Aggregate Industries has been the main contractor working on the Blaby improvements with the special asphalt being supplied by Tarmac.

Using the new surface is expected to reduce CO2 emissions and means fewer tyres going to landfill.

The “warm mix” nature of the product is expected to save ten tonnes of carbon.

Carbon emissions are also being reduced by recycling the bituminous material removed from the carriageway.

The three projects will together generate over 21,000 tonnes of carriageway material available for recycling and the new materials used on the schemes will incorporate approximately 3,700 tonnes of recycled material.

The improvements involve resurfacing these roads and have been carried out using £5 million of cash from the “challenge fund” allocated by the Department of Transport to assist with Covid-19 recovery.