Hampshire County Council is beginning trials of ‘greener’ warm mix asphalt, which uses less energy and could cut costs across its thousands of miles of roads.
Its Operation Resilience team is deploying the new material on highway repairs in five areas across Hampshire. Warm mix asphalt is laid at around 100 to 150 degrees Celsius, which is typically 50 degrees below that of conventional hot mix asphalt.
The council said the material is almost identical to conventional road repair materials already being used on the county’s roads, but has considerable environmental benefits – including containing more recycled materials – and provides better value for money.
The manufacturing process uses less energy in the heating and drying process - dramatically reducing its carbon footprint. The lower temperature also reduces the risk to workers and bypassers.
Cllr Rob Humby, the council’s executive member for environment and transport, said: ‘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 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 council’s long-running highways contract with Amey is due to come to an end in August with Skanska taking over in a deal that could be worth £1.5bn over twelve years.
A council spokesperson told Transport Network: 'We would hope to continue with this but are unable to confirm at this point as we are still going through contract mobilisation.’
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