The Road Surface Treatments Association (RSTA) has launched what it calls ‘game-changing’ guidance to help councils understand the carbon savings from using surface treatments.
The RSTA Carbon Emissions for Road Surface and other Maintenance Treatments Report and Guidance was launched at the trade body’s annual conference on Thursday (13 April).
It said it was developed for local highway authority asset managers and other decision makers and will enable them to plan their future maintenance programmes and demonstrate the carbon savings they have made and are making by implementing whole life carbon and cost lifecycle asset management.
Chief executive Paul Boss said the ‘game-changing’ guidance means local authorities ‘can not only plan more effectively with their forward maintenance programmes, but finally have clarity around the carbon and financial savings they are making’.
He said: ‘This guidance will help local authorities cut through the confusion and doubt about how carbon savings are calculated with regards to the highway maintenance process and in particular showing how much carbon savings can be made from incorporating surface treatments as part of a proactive asset management strategy.’
The RSTA said the guidance – produced by PYE-Management – represents the first time all the major treatments including conventional asphalts have been calculated and compared in accordance with the international standards.
It details the carbon calculations for each of the surface treatments, including: asphalt preservation, geosynthetics, ironworks, in-situ recycling, rejuvenation, retexturing, slurry microsurfacing, spray injection patching and surface dressing.
The guidance includes the A1 – A3, A4, A5 and total C02e emissions for each treatment, with sample comparisons for schemes using different materials and methods.
The organisation described the guidance as ‘what local highway authorities have been waiting for, an endorsed one stop carbon guidance for direct comparisons across materials and methods’.
It added that it paves the way for managing other highway assets in a similar efficient way when their carbon lifecycle emissions are also calculated.
The report will be reviewed and updated no less than every three years, to ensure that figures are accurate and appropriate to the current methods and working practices.
Paul Boss will be speaking about calculating the carbon in proactive highway maintenance at Traffex at the NEC Birmingham on 7 June
