Aggregate Industries launch new reduced-carbon asphalt

Foamix offers 100% recyclable sustainable solution for base and binder course layers

AGGREGATE Industries have launched a reduced-carbon asphalt that is 100% recyclable and ideal for the construction, repair, and maintenance of new or existing highways. Foamix is said to offer a truly sustainable solution for base and binder course layers, and is suitable for use in highways, footways, and haunching works.

Foamix – a cold-mix asphalt that does not require its source materials to be processed with heat – delivers significantly less CO2 compared with standard asphalt products. There is no compromise on performance, giving equivalent bearing capacity to standard asphalt, with a proven track record for increased cohesion and strength.

Containing 92% recycled materials, including 85% reclaimed asphalt pavement (RAP), Foamix promotes a circular economy approach to road construction by reducing the requirement for virgin aggregates.

The material can be manufactured on site where construction is taking place using Aggregate Industries’ Sitebatch Technologies mobile mixing plants, meaning the team can re-process locally sourced planings from the existing road asset – either on site or at a nearby location – ensuring Foamix can be placed, compacted, and put into immediate use.

This significantly minimizes HGV movements across the local road network, construction times, and user disruption, and delivers a significantly lower scheme carbon footprint. Moreover, Foamix can be laid in one single lift up to 150mm thick using conventional surfacing equipment and laying techniques and does not require any additional specialist labour.

Foamix is being launched under Aggregate Industries’ newly established Surfacing Solutions team, which combines the expertise of the contracting and asphalt divisions to offer contractors and specifiers a whole-chain approach to product specification.

Thomas Edgcumbe, managing director of Surfacing Solutions, said: ‘We’re delighted to be able to expand on our range of low-carbon products with the launch of Aggregate Industries’ reduced-carbon asphalt Foamix.

‘Made of 92% recycled materials and 100% recyclable, Foamix is manufactured to provide a cost-effective and highly sustainable solution that promotes a circular economy approach to road and pavement construction.

‘As a business, we’re committed to providing materials and solutions that assist in the immediate and sustained action as we transition to a more sustainable construction industry. We are changing the way we construct and the launch of Foamix is yet another step towards that goal.’

Foamix has already been used as part of a comprehensive suite of materials on the UK’s first carbon-neutral highway construction scheme between junction 36 on the M6 and Brettargh Holt roundabout. The works formed part of the estimated £8 million award-winning A590 Brettargh Holt scheme, which was designed with a low-carbon strategy in mind to deliver safer and smoother journeys for road users.

As pavement experts, Aggregate Industries collaborated with AE Yates, Amey Consulting, and National Highways to engineer a pavement design and material specification that would unlock significant carbon reductions and cost benefits utilizing Aggregate Industries’ bespoke, ex-situ, cold-recycled Foamix solution.