Funded by Liverpool City Council and British Cycling, an underused part of Everton Park has been transformed into Liverpool’s first purpose-built children’s learn-to-ride facility. The £380,000 'Mini-Roads' scheme was delivered by highways contractor Dowhigh, working in partnership with Cemex and Shell Construction and Road to realise the partnership’s first successful largescale application trial of Shell’s Bitumen CarbonSink, a new bio-component binder which locks carbon into asphalt.
Shell Bitumen CarbonSink reduces carbon footprint by up to 250kg carbon dioxide equivalent per tonne of bitumen. The solution involves the addition of biogenic components engineered to ensure bitumen compatibility that won’t compromise the performance characteristics of asphalt. The end result is an asphalt pavement that can be recycled whilst also retaining captured bio-carbon in the long term.
As well as reclaiming and recycling existing materials onsite to re-use in the new road construction, Cemex’s Rubbermix asphalt was supplied. Rubbermix transforms used tyres into new valuable roads, helping to offset the environmental impact of highway maintenance activity through the circular economy. With one tyre per tonne of asphalt, Rubbermix offers the potential to recycle up to 500 tyres per kilometre of road, depending on layer thickness.
Scott Jones, Director Asphalt EMEA, Cemex, comments: “Everton Park’s new cycle track surface features a ground-breaking technical carbon sink, creating a hard wearing asphalt road surface for thousands of future road users to enjoy for many years to come. With no compromise on quality or longevity, the new asphalt road is recyclable, and most of this carbon will not re-enter the atmosphere, even at the end of its life. Cemex is particularly keen to proactively support projects promoting sustainable urban mobility and is committed to reducing environmental impact by lowering the carbon footprint and increasing circularity – Everton Park has provided the perfect opportunity to showcase our expertise in this field.”
Nikhil Subedi, environmental sustainability officer at Dowhigh, comments: “Everton Park is a modern park on an historic site with an important community legacy. The Everton Park P2R Mini Road is an example of how we can tackle the issue of carbon emission in road construction. We want to make it easier for local authorities and councils to regenerate and maintain urban spaces like these with lower carbon solutions. Technical innovation to accelerate the decarbonisation of the construction and road sector is critical – working with Cemex and Shell’s Bitumen CarbonSink has enabled us to deliver on our mission to maintain the quality and integrity of our roads and highways, whilst driving the circular economy to lower CO2e, reduce waste and create cleaner, more sustainable environments.“
The half kilometre long Mini Roads track has been expertly designed to imitate a realistic road lay out, with junctions and crossings. As well as new surface works, the new facility includes new asphalt and soft-play surfacing to provide an all-year round community asset.
Mini Roads was recently officially opened to the public and the community and key stakeholders came together to celebrate the launch. The not-for-profit community organisation Peloton Liverpool, instrumental in the concept and realisation of the project, will be launching a programme of cycle sessions at the facility over the next five years.
Asphalt containing Shell Bitumen CarbonSink will be offered to future customers as part of Cemex’s Vertua family of products and solutions. The Vertua lower carbon product symbol is awarded to selected Cemex products characterised by their unique raw material composition, which contains the highest quality ingredients to reduce the carbon footprint of the finished product.
The asphalt supply is the latest example of Cemex providing Liverpool City Council with sustainable solutions, following on from the road re-surfacing programme at Lark Lane last year.
