West Midlands in driving seat for low-carbon roads research project
An £8.5m Government-funded research project into building roads with low-carbon and recycled materials such as grass cuttings and carbon-capture cement is looking for innovators to come forward with materials and designs.
The project is split into a North and South campus, with a collaboration between Transport for West Midlands (TfWM) and its partner Colas Ltd in the south, and North Lanarkshire Council and its partner Amey in the north.
The Centre of Excellence for Decarbonising Roads, is part of a three-year, UK-wide £30m programme funded by the Department for Transport that aims to decarbonise the local highway network.
Mark Corbin, director of network resilience with TfWM, said: “Decarbonising our highway network will be a crucial part of our journey to net-zero and these innovations could make our roads more efficient to build and maintain.
“This exciting project also places the West Midlands and UK at the forefront of this ground-breaking technology with the potential to deliver investment and skilled jobs for the long-term.”
The aim is to fast track the provision of solutions to the industry that will drive decarbonisation in road construction and maintenance, accelerating the drive towards net-zero.
The Centre for Excellence will focus on creating an industry-trusted process for the identification, evaluation, trialling and sharing of groundbreaking low-carbon materials for road construction and maintenance.
