With the industry under increasing pressure to use sustainable materials in road construction, UK-based Aggregate Industries has launched Superlow, a low temperature asphalt enabling quicker, more environmentally-friendly project completion.
Specially formulated for use on highways and road infrastructure schemes, this range of asphalt is mixed at 20°C-40°C lower than hot mix asphalt. As it requires less energy to manufacture than conventional asphalt, Superlow ensures a lower carbon footprint.
The launch of this innovative solution comes just a month after the UK became the first ever country to legally commit to cutting greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions to ‘net zero’ by 2050.
Under the Construction Sector Deal set out last year, the UK has ambitious targets to halve emissions in the built environment by 2025, reduce the initial and whole life cost of a project by a third, and speed up the delivery of vital new build and refurbishment projects.
To help contractors meet these objectives, Superlow offers a whole host of real time and cost benefits. For instance, it reaches trafficking temperatures quicker than conventional hot asphalt enabling earlier reopening of carriageways to the travelling public, resulting in less road occupation, less traffic disruption and reduced build cost.
With the equivalent performance characteristics of hot mix asphalt, when it comes to workability, however, Superlow remains compactable for longer at lower temperatures. This allows more time for full compaction and, as a result, enhanced durability. It’s also longer lasting, as lower asphalt temperatures during production reduces binder ageing and enhances in service life expectancy.
Reflecting Aggregate Industries’ commitment to safety, low temperature asphalt is much safer than conventional solutions as it reduces nuisance fuming and lowers the risk of burns from material handling.
Jo Wilkins, head of business development for Asphalt and Ready Mix Concrete at Aggregate Industries, said: “With contractors and clients under increasing pressure to meet the Government’s ambitious sustainability targets, often the first step will be specifying more environmentally-friendly construction materials.
“That’s why we’ve developed Superlow, a new range of low temperature asphalts which have a lower carbon footprint than traditional asphalt. As with all our products, our in-house team of technical experts will work with customers to enable quicker and more cost-effective project completion.”
