Highways

Highways England Concrete Roads Innovations Trials

With a major upgrade of the country's concrete road network on the horizon and the Specification for Highways Works being redrafted, Highways England set out to discover which repair products and methods would actually perform on live roads. Graham, one of HE's partnered suppliers, was tasked with facilitating the trials and brought in TAG to deliver the concrete works.

TAG's role went well beyond simply pouring concrete. The team provided early contractor input, drawing on its own experience to help plan the works and build robust budgets for future repair schemes. On site, TAG carried out full and partial-depth repairs, from bay replacements to thin-bond cement repairs, trialling a range of suppliers' products head-to-head to establish what actually worked best for each type of defect.

A dedicated trial at Highways England's Spooner Row Depot put four products through their paces under simulated overnight-possession conditions: PQX concrete from Accumix, Promptis 50 from Cemex, and Rapid Set P400 CSA from Eastern Concrete, tested for workability, finish and strength gain, with rebound-hammer readings taken every 30 minutes and wireless sensors monitoring cure temperature. The results fed directly into live schemes, with PQX used to speed up bay replacements on the A120 Wix Bypass and CSA concrete proving itself on the A14, curing to 25-30N/mm² in as little as 2.5 hours in temperatures as low as 2°C.

Across the trials, TAG placed 200m³ of rapid-set concrete, carried out over 40 individual repairs and put 13 different products through their paces, recording performance data that Highways England and Graham could take forward into future maintenance specifications.

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