National Highways has announced that the Lower Thames Crossing (LTC) is the first project outside of a test environment to use JCB’s hydrogen-powered digger.
The digger, which was announced by JCB in 2023 as the first solely hydrogen-powered digger, was used to carry out survey work on the project in Kent.
National Highways has deployed the digger in partnership with Skanska, the project’s delivery partner responsible for building the new road elements in Kent.
The digger was used to carry out ground investigation surveys around the route of the road near Gravesend.
This ground investigation work is expected to help Skanska refine the road design, and has also demonstrated that the hydrogen machine is a capable replacement for diesel-powered machinery. Using this hydrogen-fuelled machine has reportedly already saved over 1 tonne of CO2e during its first four weeks of operation.
As part of the LTC’s aim of eliminating diesel from its worksites by 2027, it has made the largest ever purchase of green hydrogen for a UK construction project, National Highways said..
It will be used alongside electric and biofuel to power its machinery.
Following its recent use on the LTC, the JCB digger is now undergoing final testing and validation, with plans to go into full production at the firm’s Rocester factory in Staffordshire during 2026.
Roads and buses minister Simon Lightwood said that the construction of LTC would be 'completely carbon neutral, showing major infrastructure projects can be delivered hand in hand with our ambitious environmental targets’.
Matt Palmer, National Highways executive director for LTC, said: ‘Our commitment to being carbon neutral and restoring nature will prove that the British construction industry has the vision and skills to build the projects needed to drive growth in a way that enhances, not impacts, the local environment.’
Steve Fox, JCB’s managing director for global major accounts, said: ‘This is a huge milestone for the construction industry. For the first time on a major infrastructure project, hydrogen has proven its worth on site as a carbon-neutral fuel in a working JCB construction machine.’
