Construct - Issue 49

NEWBURY BYPASS

In March 2023, FM Conway

asked to resurface the southbound carriageway of the A34 Newbury Bypass, which had lost skid resistance and had ride quality issues and carriageway rutting. As time was tight, National Highways asked FM Conway’s consultancy team to do the design, which enabled the business to put forward a design that incorporated

up to 30% of recycled asphalt product (RAP) materials in the surface course and up to 40% in the binder course. This is not a standard National Highways design, so the business applied for – and was granted – a ‘departure’ to the specification. The business is optimistic that this mix will now be

accepted for future schemes on the network.

to be resurfaced during the project in February 2024, with a total of 13,480m 2 of new carriageway laid. A total of approximately 1,635 tonnes of binder course and 1,635 tonnes of surface course asphalt was supplied to the project, with the RAP material incorporated into the surface and binder courses. The surface layer was laid with FM Conway’s SureLane warm-mix polymer In all, an area of 109,875.6m 2 of carriageway was resurfaced during five night shifts, with an average of 394 tonnes of material laid per shift. planed materials recovered from day one of the scheme recycled, reprocessed and re-laid by day three. The circular approach saw

secured a place on National Highways’ Pavement Delivery Framework

The £2.5 million project involved planing in two passes: one to remove the top 45mm, and the

for the South Region, which includes Area 3

covering Berkshire, Buckinghamshire, Dorset, Hampshire, Surrey and Oxfordshire. After only a few months on the framework, the business was

second to a depth of 100mm. The new surface was then laid in the form of a 55mm thick warm mix Enviro binder and 45mm thin SurePhalt E surface course.

PICCADILLY

FM Conway’s contract to resurface Piccadilly in central London was the first time the circular economy aspect of recycling was seen on the capital’s roads. Working as the City of Westminster's highways partner, FM Conway removed the surface and binder courses, took the planings to its Heathrow asphalt plant for recycling, then incorporated this RAP into the binder course that was laid in the next shift. The entire 1.6km length of Piccadilly from Piccadilly Circus to Hyde Park Corner was planned

modified stone mastic asphalt product, which

was chosen for its durability benefits.

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