LJMU technology to revolutionise sustainable road building

Engineers at LJMU have inspired a project to radically reduce the environmental impact of Liverpool’s roads.

Novel technologies designed in the School of Civil Engineering and Built Environment will allow the city to build new roads and pavements out of demolished infrastructure.

“It will allow vast savings in both the construction of new road structures and reconstruction costs, reduction of CO2 emission and preventing disruption to infrastructure users,” explained Professor Hassan Al Nageim, leader of the Novel and Bio-Based Materials Technology Group at LJMU.

Liverpool City Council has been awarded £4m from the Department of Transport - through the Live Labs 2: Decarbonising Local Roads competition - which will kickstart three demonstrator projects – in Everton, Picton and Belle Vale – with a focus on’ greening up’ the city’s approach to road building and maintenance from design to construction.

The city will work with LJMU and contractor Colas to develop the material processes.

The project, which is seen as a key element in Liverpool’s drive to achieve carbon net-zero status by 2030, will also complement a number of other city council led decarbonisation schemes.

Liverpool City Council is also currently rolling out a new network of cycle lanes with the support of LJMU engineers who are monitoring road usage with a network of sensors.

Karen Agbabiaka, Liverpool City Council’s Interim Chief Highways Officer, said: “The funding from Live Labs is a fantastic vote of confidence in our plans to use the latest technology to transform how we reduce the carbon footprint of our roads. 

“The research and development stage is going to be a critical phase and it’s brilliant to have Liverpool John Moores University, as well as our local roads maintenance contractors Dowhigh, Colas and Huyton Civil all involved.

“This project will unite the city’s academic and construction prowess and show Liverpool can be truly world-leading on providing solutions on the climate change agenda.”