Collaborative working and innovation on A12 surfacing scheme

Tarmac continues to demonstrate great collaboration with its customers, helping to complete the recent works to resurface the A12 East Cross route in London. The project, part of Transport for London’s Term Contractor CVU’s ‘working together to transform London’s streets’ strategy saw us working with ELM Surfacing and CVU to complete this critical scheme.

The surfacing, drainage works, reinstallation of four bridge expansion joints and all traffic detector loops, were completed under full road closures spread across 13 night shifts.

The A12 East Cross route is a critical artery for London and the timely completion of works at the end of each shift was essential. Planings needed to be removed before midnight each night due to noise constraints and all asphalt had to be laid before 4:00am each morning to ensure the road could be reopened to the public, ready for the morning commute.

Tarmac introduced a series of innovative ideas that helped benefit the project:

• We added steel slag aggregate into the asphalt, a material byproduct from steel furnaces which is then completely recycled into our asphalt product.
• During each shift, Tarmac tippers were used for the dual purpose of collecting the planings and for the delivery of new asphalt surfacing. This allowed us to utilise materials with planings collected from the site being processed and recycled back into the asphalt for use on the scheme.
• We supported the decision to ‘double up’ resources over shifts with two machine surfacing crews working simultaneously, doubling the area surfaced per night and reducing the original programme by eight nights.

A collaborative approach, forward planning and the ongoing coordination of all parties ensured the successful delivery of this scheme, with an impressive 26,150m2 of carriageway resurfaced. Works were completed to the highest standards each night and the A12 reopened on time every morning.

Kevin Short, industrial footprint manager who supported the project added: “Good, clear communication between all parties ensured the works progressed well and as planned. This is a great example of collaboration across the industry and how Tarmac is working with our customers to support the efficient use of resources.”

#BUILDINGOURFUTURE

“This is a great example of collaboration across the industry and how Tarmac is working with our customers to support the efficient use of resources.”

Kevin Short, industrial footprint manager