Powering through the crisis with smart, collaborative working

Collaborative working practices have allowed many highways schemes to continue throughout 2020. Although the housing industry has slowed significantly, road building and asphalt supply has remained strong throughout 2020. Careful adjustment to working practices and transport arrangements have minimised the risk of transmission, while allowing work to continue. Some local authorities have found that the smaller gang sizes associated with using innovative SMA type materials in place of alternatives like HRA and chips has made site logistics and Covid safe working practices easier. Tarmac asphalt plants have also adopted a …

Tarmac launch their online Guide to Pothole Repairs

To mark National Pothole Day on 15 January, Tarmac launched an online guide to pothole repairs. Timely intervention and choosing the right material can help prevent serious deterioration in the condition of a road and help extend its life. The online guide helps highways teams to choose from the range of repair materials on offer, from packed cold lay asphalts and longer lasting hotbox materials to specialist bagged asphalts for use in mobile asphalt heaters. Take a look at our Guide to Pothole Repairs

Way behind on Warm Mix

Warm mix asphalts offer big savings in carbon emissions, but the UK is still way behind the US in the use of this technology. Despite over 300 local authorities declaring a climate emergency in 2019 and Warm Mix Asphalt getting the backing of The All Party Parliamentary Group [APPG] on Highways in their ‘Working for Better Roads’ a report, warm mix asphalt still represents just 5-6% of asphalt volumes in the UK. This compares to almost 50% in the United States. Warm mix asphalts generally support carbon dioxide savings of …

Low carbon asphalt incorporating rubber from recycled tyres

After learning more about its sustainability benefits, Wolverhampton City Council decided to use Tarmac’s Rubber Modified Asphalt to resurface Northycote Lane, a busy road in the Bushberry North Area of the city. As well as having 8% lower carbon emissions due to the warm mix binder technology, using this material avoided sending around 500 tyres to landfill. Using low temperature asphalt helped knock two days off the original programme time. Choosing a Rubber Modified, Warm Mix SMA helped Bolton Council to take steps towards meeting their ‘net-zero carbon’ by 2030 …

Ultipave WMA with recycled Steel Slag aggregates – London Borough of Bromley

In line with the London Borough of Bromley’s commitment to the use of sustainable materials, the binder course was to be supplied as a Warm Mix Asphalt and the ULTIPAVE used steel slag aggregate. The shorter curing time of Warm Mix Asphalt enabled Riney to plane off, lay the binder and overlay the surface course in one shift.

Tarmac puts skills at the core of graduate and apprentice workforce

Tarmac is celebrating the success of higher apprentices and graduates who have completed the businesses two-year core skills development programme – a programme designed to equip higher apprentices and graduates with the skills and knowledge needed for a successful career within the construction industry.