The Cambridge to Huntington A14 improvement works (image courtesy of Costain)
Mick George Concrete is to trial the use of low-carbon concrete on the £1.5bn A14 Cambridge to Huntingdon improvement project.
The firm has dedicated a 100-tonne silo at its Cambridgeshire-based batching plant to sustainable cement Cemfree, as demand for low-carbon alternatives climbs.
Cemfree, produced by Cambridgeshire-based building materials company DB Group, can achieve embodied carbon savings of up to 80% when used to replace ordinary Portland cement (OPC) in concrete production, Mick George has claimed.
Now an agreement is in place with Highways England to supply up to up to 500m3 of Cemfree in the new year to trial the product on a series of ancillary applications (kerb backing, drainage, mass fill, and signage) on a controlled, live section of the road.
Mick George has agreed to absorb the additional cost of using the product, which is expected to save approximately 500 tonnes of carbon.
Michael George, managing director at the Mick George Group, said: ‘’Due to an increased corporate emphasis on carbon reduction targets, there is undoubtedly more environmental consideration in construction build designs.’’
“We have a strong reputation for developing cutting-edge solutions and niche products, the introduction of Cemfree represented an opportunity to do both simultaneously.’’
Concrete is reported to be the third-biggest source of man-made CO2, while the global production rate of OPC currently stands at 4 billion tonnes per year, contributing almost 4 billion tonnes to the Earth’s CO2 levels.
