Milestone Infrastructure has worked closely with its client, Oxfordshire County Council, to trial carbon-cutting solutions over the last year. Here are just some of the innovative approaches we’ve implemented across the contract to reduce the environmental impacts of our work.
A direct comparison of seven different pothole filling techniques on the same stretch of road was undertaken, to understand how to achieve the highest quality and longest lasting fix, with the lowest carbon impact. You can read more about our trial here.
We trialled a new ‘supermaterial’ graphene to understand how well it extends the life of asphalt. Working with pioneering Italian company, Iterchimica, we installed graphene enhanced asphalt at Middle Barton in west Oxfordshire. If this proves to last much longer than traditional techniques, this could radically change highways surfacing works, minimising potholes, and reducing the frequency that the road must be resurfaced. All this should provide a better-quality road for motorists as well as reducing the carbon emitted over the road’s lifetime.
The team used demonstrated our Dragon Patcher, highlighting the efficiency of repairing potholes with this piece of equipment compared to traditional repair methods. Our versatile machine enables minor road defects to be fixed quicker and address the growing challenge of potholes. This equipment saves our clients’ money and reduces carbon emissions associated with essential defect repairs.
Instead of throwing away old material collected when our roads are resurfaced, we have worked with Stabilised Pavements Limited to recycle it directly back into the new road. The trial, which took place on a road in south Oxfordshire, tested in-situ cold recycling. This method removes the need to transport waste material away for disposal and helps to reduce the volume of new quarried stone required. Both represent significant carbon savings- the equivalent of 227 tonnes of carbon - the same as removing 100 petrol cars off the roads for a year.
We used our digital expertise to create a Carbon Portal that allows Oxfordshire County Council & Milestone colleagues to continually check the progress of carbon reduction measures in close to real time.
The data has so far shown success in a reduction of carbon across our four focus areas: design, materials, plant and fleet, and depots - reporting a saving of 3700 tonnes CO2e across the County in 2023, exceeding the target agreed by the partnership!
We will continue to work with Oxfordshire County Council, to cut carbon, reduce costs and innovate as we work towards our ambitious target to achieve net zero across our operations, including our supply chain, by 2040.
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