Wednesday 1 January 2020

Highways England to trial low carbon concrete on major A road

Highways England is to trial low carbon Cemfree on a series of ancillary applications such as kerb backings, drainage and mass fill within a controlled, live section of the A14 Huntingdon to Cambridge improvement scheme.

Mick George Concrete will provide the material from a 100-tonne silo at its Cambridgeshire based plant.

Cemfree is an ultra-low-carbon cement produced by Cambridgeshire-based  DB Group. The product can achieve embodied carbon savings of up to 80% when used to replace ordinary Portland cement in concrete production. According to Mick George Concrete it is the first RMC supplier in the region to stock Cemfree in this way.

Concrete is the third highest source of man-made CO2 and that the global production rate of Portland cement currently stands at 4 billion tonnes per year contributing almost 4 billion tonnes to the Earth’s CO2 levels.

Mick George Concrete will be supplying up to 500m3 of Cemfree early in 2020, representing a pioneering test for low-carbon concrete as a technically appropriate, permanent application on major infrastructure projects.

Michael George, Managing Director at the Mick George Group, commented: ‘’Due to an increased corporate emphasis on carbon reduction targets, there is undoubtedly more environmental consideration in construction build designs.’’