Aggregate Industries win prestigious Preston project

Contracting division commences pavement construction contract for £200 million bypass scheme    

AGGREGATE Industries contracting division has started work on the prestigious contract to construct the new Preston Western Distributor Road (PWDR).

The PWDR is the first major new bypass to be constructed in the area since the ‘Preston Bypass’ – Britain’s first motorway – was built in 1958. This eight-and-a-quarter mile (13.3km) section of motorway ran around the east side of Preston and today forms part of the M6.

The high-profile PWDR will pass to the west of the city, linking Preston and southern Fylde to a new junction on the M55. Scheduled to open in early 2023, the £200 million scheme is the biggest new road programme in the Preston, South Ribble and Lancashire City Deal and is aimed at not only promoting new housing and business development, but also increasing capacity on the existing local road network.

Aggregate Industries were awarded the contract by Costain and Lancashire County Council and will be the sole supplier of all ready-mixed concrete and aggregates for the scheme.

As part of the project, the company will also supply and lay more than 90,000 tonnes of asphalt over the next 15 months.

Meanwhile, SiteBatch Technologies, Aggregate Industries’ specialist unit which manufactures and supplies cementitious mixtures to large-scale infrastructure projects such as this, has commissioned one of its mobile continuous mixing plants on site to supply the project with 80,000 tonnes of hydraulically bound materials (HBM).

Paddy Murphy, managing director of contracting at Aggregate Industries, said: ‘We’re delighted to be working on the PWDR, which, once complete, will greatly improve capacity on the local road network.

‘Our aim is to deliver the works on time and on budget, identifying efficiencies where possible, whilst ensuring that we keep everyone safe by implementing industry-leading health and safety standards.’