Hampshire County Council is trialling a new 'greener' material to repair roads in Hampshire, in the form of ‘warm mix asphalt’.
The asphalt uses more recycled material and involves a manufacturing process that uses less energy in the heating and drying stages - reducing its carbon footprint.
Being a warm mix, the material is also delivered and laid at a much lower temperature that hot mixes, reducing the risk to workers. In other respects it is almost identical to conventional road repair materials, the council said.
Warm mix asphalt is laid at around 100 to 150 degrees Celsius, which is typically 50 degrees below that of conventional hot mix asphalt.
Hampshire CC's executive member for environment and transport, Cllr Rob Humby, said: 'Hampshire County Council is committed to ensuring recycled materials are used wherever possible when maintaining Hampshire’s roads – making it kinder to the environment. Thanks to our size, capacity and expertise serving the entire county, we are well placed to be able to trial new, innovative materials and best practice to benefit the whole of Hampshire.
'Hampshire maintains over 5,280 miles of roads in Hampshire and if the trial is successful, then we will be rolling out the use of this material across the county which could result in future cost savings for Hampshire taxpayers.'
The new material will be tested in five areas across Hampshire.
