Tarmac wins its biggest surfacing contract
Tarmac has been chosen to carry out surfacing work on the widening of the UK’s M1 motorway – its largest such contract to date.
Tarmac will be carrying out all the surfacing work on a programme to widen a section of the M1, laying 550,000 tonnes of asphalt over two years. The section concerned is from the M25 (the London orbital motorway) to Luton – the stretch of the M1with the heaviest traffic flow.
First opened in 1959, the M1 was Britain’s first full length motorway and now links the north and south of the country. Today it stretches from the North Circular Road in London to the A1(M) north-east of Leeds and is 300 kilometres in length. It was originally constructed for around 14,000 vehicles per day, but this capacity was reached the day it opened and it now its carries on average of 160,000 vehicles each day.
The main contractors selected by the UK Highways Agency for the project are Balfour Beatty and Skanska, who have formed a joint venture company especially for this contract, choosing Tarmac as their strategic partner. Tarmac has worked for both companies as their key supply-chain partner for a number of years and has recently completed the strategic widening of the M25 south of Heathrow Airport for Balfour Beatty. Tarmac is also the widening of the A2/M2 in Kent for Skanska. Each of these contracts involves laying in excess of 200,000 tonnes of asphalt.
Rod Calder, Contracting Director (Southern) for Tarmac says of the M1 project: “This is a very prestigious contract for Tarmac, but it was only secured because of the reputation gained following the successful completion of the M25 project.”
The aggregate for the M1 project is being supplied from Tarmac’s Cliffe Hill and Dolyhir quarries, with the asphalt coming from Hayes and Elstow. Planning will be carried out by NRP – a company owned by Tarmac.
Protecting the environment is a key aspect and the contract has developed measures to minimise the effect of the scheme and is to enhance the environment. Tarmac’s involvement in this aspect has been twofold: to reduce noise, Tarmac is using its proprietary low-noise surfacing, Tarmac Masterpave; and to reduce lorry movements and waste, NRP has been able to ensure, in conjunction with the main contractor, that all the planings are recycled on the contract and not transported to a landfill site.
