Construct - Issue 49

Project

FULL CIRCLE

TWOHIGH-PROFILECONTRACTSHAVE DEMONSTRATEDTHECIRCULARECONOMY INACTION, WITHMATERIAL RECYCLEDAND PUT BACK INTOTHE SAMEROAD

FM Conway has been incorporating recycled asphalt product (RAP) into its surfacing materials for many years, but the ultimate example of a circular economy is to re-use RAP within the same project. The business has now achieved this on two very different schemes: Piccadilly in London and the A34 Newbury Bypass in Berkshire. “This is about us planing off the material, taking it back to the recycling plant, making the RAP and putting it back into asphalt and then returning it to the same site,” explains FM Conway technical director Mark Flint. “That is true circularity.” On the A34, this was achieved by reprocessing the planings at FM Conway’s nearby asphalt plants and incorporating them into both the binder course and surface course asphalt products. By day three of the contract, the material that was being laid incorporated asphalt that had come out of the road, with 30% recycled content going into the surface course and 40% in the binder. It was the first time this had been done on a National Highways project, but it could soon become business as usual. The organisation is aiming to achieve net zero carbon by 2040, and replacing virgin materials with RAP taken from the site can make a big contribution. The circular economy measures at Newbury saved an estimated 98,000kg of CO 2 e.

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