The future of low carbon roads

Over this week, we’ve shown:

• some of the innovations that will put roads at the heart of a net zero Britain
• the creativity, hard work and partnerships that are making it happen

Lower carbon materials

Asphalt is one of the key materials we use. It's used for road surfacing on over 96% of our network.

Asphalt contributes around 15% to our total construction and maintenance emissions. Finding lower carbon materials for road surfaces is an important way to help the UK transition to a low carbon economy.

To deliver our net zero targets, we've established ambitious decarbonisation activities in our zero-carbon roadmap for concrete, steel and asphalt.

We've been funding research into lower carbon asphalt technologies and trialling their potential. Different innovative low carbon technologies are being tested across the strategic road network.

We're working with The University of Nottingham to accelerate materials testing. This will help us understand how low carbon asphalt can affect the life of roads. We're using our findings to update the standards and specifications that allow us to use these materials on our network.

Low carbon technologies

There are a range of emerging low carbon technologies, including:

Bio-binders

Bio-binders replace the fossil-fuel based bitumen in asphalt with low carbon, industrial alternatives.

Long-life binders

Long life binders improve the lifespan of asphalt.

Recycled plastic and crumb rubber additives

These replace higher carbon additives in the asphalt and repurpose waste materials like old tyres.

Graphene additives

Using processed mineral graphite to make the asphalt more resistant to weather and vehcile damage.

High reclaimed asphalt

Recycling a higher proportion of pre-used asphalt

Bio-rejuvenators

Additives which make reclaimed asphalt behave more like virgin asphalt.

Half-warm asphalt technologies

Reducing both the temperature that asphalt is laid at and the fuel need to heat it. This helps us open roads sooner after after laying asphalt.

Results from our trials will inform:

• future use of these materials on our network
• how we can update standards and specifications so this technology easy to use every day

Our Carbon Management System

We have a comprehensive Carbon Management System including a low carbon opportunities register. The system holds information about low carbon solutions, their readiness and potential uses.

Our colleagues and suppliers can use this information to identify opportunities to reduce carbon from construction and maintenance schemes.

We now need to rise to the challenge of scaling and enabling these innovations across our organisation.

For more information, please follow us on social media.