Ringway Jacobs and Essex County Council are trialling a hot rolled asphalt (HRA) containing graphene on a section of road in Chelmsford.
The trial has brought in the international expertise of Ringway shareholder Eurovia UK, specialist asset management consultancy Jean Lefebvre UK (JLUK) and other partners.
It aims to test whether adding a new strengthening compound containing graphene to traditional surfacing material can double the lifespan of road surfaces, thereby cutting carbon emissions.
Graphene is 200 times stronger than steel but extremely flexible – making the asphalt far less susceptible both to hardening and cracking in cold temperatures and softening in warm temperatures. It also increases the elasticity and strength to reduce wear, particularly under high loading.
The product used is Gipave, which was developed by Italian company Iterchimica.
Eurovia said Gipave further reduces environmental impacts and carbon emissions as it contains a specific type of selected hard plastic, which is usually considered non-reusable, avoiding less sustainable disposal methods.
For the first time in UK the product is being added to HRA, then applied to a good quality substrate or a newly applied binder course. Eurovia said that while it recognises that warm and cold mix products offer immediate carbon reduction benefits, some highway authorities still prefer hot mix products for their whole-life benefits.
In the trial, conventional HRA has been laid as a control section, adjacent to the graphene-enhanced area.
Eurovia managing director Paul Goosey said: ‘Working with JULK and Iterchimica, to bring Gipave to the UK, we can offer clients a surfacing solution, which, in the right location and network, will reduce environmental whole-life impact and improve the resilience of the network.'
Ringway Jacobs managing director Phil Horton said: ‘Our company structure enables us to call on the expertise of industry leaders across the world and we are delighted to be bringing that know-how to Essex in a project that could save time and money while at the same time reducing the carbon footprint due to the extended life of the pavement.'
Other trials of graphene have been launched on the national network and in Oxfordshire.
