Cambridgeshire County Council, and its highways maintenance contractor Skanska, have won a Green Apple Award for Environmental Best Practice.
The team attended an awards ceremony in London, where they picked up the award for using a specialised technique called Carriageway REGEN. A technique that is used to recycle the existing road surface on site.
Working with members of the supply chain, Stabilised Pavements, Atkins and Asphalt Reinforcement Services, the technique was developed to save time, carbon emissions and money.
Peter Nicholas, Scheme Delivery Manager, explained: “By adapting the existing In Situ technique to suit the specific type of road, the team saved 17,600 tonnes of material going to landfill. This meant the need for 880 vehicle trips to take away the material was removed. It also saved over 500 tonnes of carbon, the equivalent of 100,000 miles of air travel.”
The county has an extensive network of rural roads used by large vehicles such as tractors and heavy good vehicles to access farms and businesses. Due to the heavy traffic using these roads, remedial work was required to make them structurally safe and keep them running.
Cambridgeshire County Council’s Chair of the Highways and Infrastructure Committee, Councillor Mathew Shuter said: “The team worked together to come up with a sustainable solution that saved time, money and significantly minimised disruption to motorists who rely on these roads.
“Winning this award is a great testament to the team’s innovative and collaborative way of working and the way everybody involved is always thinking of better solutions to improve the road network across Cambridgeshire.”