Bath & North East Somerset Council has this week begun its first-ever major foamed bitumen recycling scheme, resurfacing 10,000m2 of the A368 at Chelwood with OCL’s carbon-saving alternative to traditional road resurfacing solution, Foambase® .
The project is part of Bath & North East Somerset Council’s ongoing commitment to tackling the climate emergency, and Foambase® ‘s ability to up to 50 percent less CO2 emissions than traditional methods made it a stand-out choice.
Foambase® is applied cold and recycles the existing aggregate on site, which reduces waste and is more cost-effective than traditional methods. In the current economic conditions with high prices associated with materials and fuel, Foambase® is less dense than traditional asphalt, so it goes further and can be used efficiently with recycled aggregates. As a result of this recycling it eliminates both the need for transportation and waste costs, sheltering the council from expensive fuel costs too.
This scheme alone will replace more than 1,500 tonnes of traditional hot asphalt with the Foambase® material. This will save 28,500kgs of CO2 emissions, which is equivalent of 35 direct flights from London to New York.
This is one of a growing number of measures used by the council’s highways team to respond to the climate emergency and help it become carbon neutral.
Councillor David Wood, cabinet member for Neighbourhood Services said: “We’re always looking for new and innovative ways to deliver our essential works while still moving towards our goal of becoming carbon neutral. We know that using methods like this will help us tackle the climate emergency. We hope we can use this method in future projects to help our environment and save money.”
The resurfacing works started on Monday 20 June and began under a full road closure. It is expected to take two weeks to complete. The road will be closed overnight for two additional nights on the 5th and 6th July for additional works to replace existing high friction surfacing.
Currently OCL Regeneration is working with councils up and down the U.K. to help them resurfacing roads, laying new cycle lanes and pathways using it’s forward-thinking carbon neutral solutions. If you’d like to learn more about these solutions, please get in touch.
