Showing posts with label Tarmac. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Tarmac. Show all posts

Friday, 31 July 2020

Aggregate Industries must surely wish Tarmac would stop talking about Silverstone

It must be both embarrassing and galling for Aggregate Industries to watch competitor Tarmac crow about the "record-breaking asphalt surface" it laid at the Silverstone motor racing circuit.

How different it could have been for the so-called "racing circuit experts" from Aggregate Industries. If only it had gone right. If only riders hadn’t been injured when they aquaplaned off the company’s new asphalt at 150mph. If only races hadn’t had to be cancelled. If only the company hadn’t gagged a motorsport journalist. If only it hadn’t been such a PR nightmare. If only all this hadn't happened.

Tarmac, it will be remembered, stepped in last year to save the world-famous motorsport venue, removing and relaying the asphalt surface that had been put down by Aggregate Industries and that had caused so many problems.

This weekend sees a crowdless Formula 1 British Grand Prix at Silverstone. Tarmac has been making the most of its Silverstone rescue mission, this week calling for people to Sign up for the Tarmac ‘Surfacing Silverstone’ webinar.

‘Surfacing Silverstone – Key learnings and reflections one year on’ will provide the inside track on the installation of the iconic Northamptonshire racing circuit’s latest record-breaking asphalt surface.
Tarmac’s technical manager, Tim Smith, will be joined by special guest Stuart Pringle, Silverstone managing director, to explain how the project team worked round the clock to lay a bespoke and highly durable asphalt solution at the world-famous venue.
The session will discuss how Tarmac were able to meet the project’s exacting specification requirements, as well as the cutting-edge technology and processes used to complete the project on time.
This included a UK-first roll out of 3D GPS-guided planing – used to remove the previous track surface and adjust gradients with millimetre precision – running three paving machines in echelon to eliminate joints across the width of the track, and digital paving technology to guarantee quality during the laying and compaction of the asphalt.
Talk about rubbing salt into poor Aggregate Industries’ wounds. But its problems go further.

Tarmac intends to leverage its success with Silverstone beyond the world of motor sport:
The team will also reflect on key learnings from the project and how the techniques used could offer practical solutions and improvements in the way that major road projects are carried out in future.
Perhaps they hope that others will now be crying out for Tarmac's expertise, wanting road surfaces as good as the one laid at Silverstone.

What future now for Aggregate Industries in the motor racing world? Last year, the company was relegated to 20 tonnes of track repairs at Goodwood.

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Friday, 30 August 2019

Tarmac's new surface at Silverstone ‘close to perfect’

Since we posted AI’s “racing circuit experts” relegated to 20 tonnes of track repairs at Goodwood, the MotoGP has taken place at Silverstone.

As readers will know – and all the fun and games can be relived here for any who don't – Silverstone had to be resurfaced this year, following the mayhem and misery that ensued last year when the track was resurfaced by Aggregate Industries.

Riders were complimentary about Tarmac's new surface:



The aggregates press has already been making hay – Bayston Hill takes the chequered flag and MotoGP riders praise Silverstone track surface:
Silverstone's new surface staged yet another weekend of high-octane action with the 2019 GoPro British Grand Prix MotoGP event witnessing incredible racing, huge crowds and lap records smashed in every class.
It was immediately clear riders were happy with the bespoke track surface laid by new contractors Tarmac, and lap times were fast from the first free-practice session on Friday morning.
Reigning MotoGP champion Marc Marquez said: ‘As soon as I went out, I felt like it was another track. I enjoyed riding it a lot more and, I think, so did everyone else. Last year we complained, but this year we have to say congratulations to the circuit because they did a great job.’
Silverstone’s managing director, Stuart Pringle, was quoted as saying:
The success of this weekend’s MotoGP racing, the incredible lap times, the atmosphere, and the great racing are testament to the incredible hard work by the Silverstone team.
The work we have done on the new track surface has allowed us to rebuild trust with the fans. We know they endured the most miserable of days last year, but we have demonstrated today, Silverstone is back to being a world-class track.
This sudden interest in motor sport by the aggregates press is in stark contrast to last year, when the same writers remained completely silent in the face of the chaos and disaster that followed Aggregate Industries' new asphalt.

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Wednesday, 10 July 2019

Quarry firms criticise council for allowing “unregulated mineral extraction”

What hope is there of Devon County Council and the Environment Agency being able to police Aggregate Industries’ complicated working scheme at Straitgate Farm – "untried anywhere else in the country"? What hope of stopping water supplies from being harmed when excavators are let loose? What hope of knowing what goes on, or what depths would be reached, behind closed bunding.

What hope? None at all.

Two of the country’s leading building materials firms have accused local authority planners of allowing a large mineral extraction operation to continue unregulated.
It's not surprising. Planning conditions are broken all the time.


If AI can't be bothered to fulfil its Blackhill obligations, what hope is there for Straitgate? What hope for people who lose their drinking water supplies? What hope for people whose supplies become contaminated? What hope for timely action, when the last three hydrological monitoring reports for Blackhill have either been submitted late or not at all, when surface flows haven't been measured since 2011?
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Wednesday, 12 June 2019

An indication of things to come

In a post earlier in the year, Construction, demolition & excavation waste – largest waste stream in UK economy, we pointed to figures from the Minerals Products Association – the trade body representing Aggregate Industries and others, who claims "the need for resources and waste materials to be used more efficiently and effectively has never been so strong" – telling us that 120 million tonnes of construction, demolition and excavation waste is created each year – the largest waste stream in the UK economy – of which 26 million tonnes continues to be dumped in landfills.

The UK Green Building Council says "construction is still getting the circular economy wrong":
In the UK, construction, demolition and excavation account for 60% of both material use and waste generation. Humanity is on course to triple material extraction in the next 30 years and triple waste production by 2100.
Clearly the construction industry can't keep on like this. Fortunately there are signs – in these three recent stories – that some things are slowly moving in the right direction:

CDE recycling is set to receive a boost in the South West. A new £4m recycling plant has been set up on the outskirts of Bristol in response to demand. The materials recovery facility is set to be the most efficient and effective plant in the South West, processing construction and commercial waste, producing 'zero waste to landfill'.
The contractors that choose us are the ones that have environmental management systems at the forefront of their procurement so their sites have to be as close to ‘zero waste to landfill’ as possible. This new plant is the only one in the south-west that can process construction and demolition waste to that degree.


Meanwhile, Tarmac has become the first company in the UK to develop a new rubberised asphalt using recycled waste tyres. Some 40 million waste tyres are produced every year in the UK. The new material has been trialled in Coventry. Coventry City Council's senior highways engineer said:
We are delighted with the rubberised asphalt trial; we hope we can use more of the product across the city in the future to help divert waste tyres from landfill and incineration to reduce the carbon footprint for road construction projects in Coventry.
The Tyre Recovery Association, added:
While there has been significant progress in reusing and recycling waste tyres in the UK, there is still an over-reliance on the export of used tyres to countries such as China, India and Pakistan, who are importing fewer tyres as they become self-sufficient.
The UK needs a second disposal route for used tyres. Tarmac’s commitment to developing rubberised asphalt provides an excellent opportunity to achieve this and deliver environmental savings for this under-used waste stream.


Finally, in an indication of the recycling rates in construction waste that can be achieved – Station demolition achieves 95% recycling rate:
100% of the brick, timber and concrete removed from the site during the demolition work has been recycled for reuse elsewhere in the construction industry.

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Friday, 7 June 2019

Quarry companies struggle to dig in the right direction, let alone to the nearest cm

At Straitgate Farm, Aggregate Industries proposes to quarry down to the maximum winter water table – wherever that might be.

I am concerned that there is a very steep hydraulic gradient across the site, from around 152m in the west to less than 135 m in the east, and the limited number of piezometers used to grid the water table surface. Variations in the shape of the water table cannot be contoured based on the number of piezometers used in the application.
... groundwater resources of this area are very sensitive and fragile [but] if Devon County Council are minded to grant permission for these proposals, despite the evidence given in this report, they are asked to ensure that an unquarried buffer of at least 3 m is left above the maximum water table to minimise the negative impacts.
It’s standard to leave an unquarried buffer or safety margin in a quarry where nearby groundwater supplies are at risk from pollution or degradation.

Quarries on sites less sloping, or where’s there’s less at stake, might leave less than 3m. Some leave 2m or more. At Town Farm Quarry – a quarry that has the same geology that underlies Straitgate, but where only two properties were reliant on private water – Hanson left 1m. Hanson recognised:
The unsaturated zone above the water table affords protection of the aquifer from surface pollution, allowing adsorption, attenuation and degradation of contaminants prior to reaching the water table. Removal of lower permeability clay layers from within the Pebble Beds could also remove some protection from the groundwater. During the operation of the site pollution may arise from the extraction and restoration activities. The pollution may be in the form of fuel, lubricants and other fluids associated with the operator’s machinery. C3.1
Once upon a time, AI also said it was going to leave 1m unquarried above the MWWT. AI confirmed this to the EA and DCC. The EA said:
Aggregate Industries have proposed to stop quarrying a metre above the water-table. We expect DCC to make this a condition of any permission that is granted.
It was a lie. Resource figures put forward by the company showed that AI intended to leave 0m. It took months before the company came clean on the matter.

But it’s not just that. AI claims it knows where the MWWT is to cm accuracy, and furthermore that it could dig to this. That’s also a lie, not least because water levels have already exceeded AI’s guesstimate by almost 3m in places.

But the truth is, quarry companies find it difficult digging in the right direction, let alone to the nearest cm.

Recent site inspections have highlighted that parts of the site are not being worked in accordance with those approved plans in terms of the directionality of the working.
restoration was not in accordance with the approved plans and failed to achieve a natural slope, leading to some areas becoming waterlogged while the ponds had reduced water levels
Unfortunately, AI is no better. At Houndaller in Devon – the site with 4 million tonnes of permitted sand and gravel reserves that the company is currently working – DCC’s monitoring report of 2016 reported:
The site is in contravention with the requirements of Condition B2 and Condition B6. The requirements of these conditions relate to the order of development in defined phases. The working of phase 4 should not have commenced until the "majority of the restoration, seeding and planting of the following Phases has been completed". 4.3
To "regularise the situation", agricultural land was lost – as DCC's monitoring report 2017 made clear:
To regularise the situation on site the operator submitted an interim restoration plan and a biodiversity statement. The statement provided evidence that the area which had previously been left to naturally regenerate had now developed valuable areas for ecological habitats. It was concluded that it would not be appropriate to regrade this area and return to the approved restoration of agricultural land given that this would then harm established habitats of value. 4.9
The point is, once quarry companies are left to their own devices, anything can happen. We posted examples in What’s the chance that AI would stop digging when it gets to the water table? of how much notice the industry takes of planning conditions and water tables, saying:
To be fair, it’s not just Aggregate Industries that breaches planning conditions – the whole industry is at it.
But what of AI's unorthodox scheme? According to Prof Brassington such a scheme is "untried anywhere else in the country", and:
It is suggested that this operational procedure is too difficult for typical machine operators and so the application should be refused unless there is a much thicker layer of unquarried rock left in place stipulated in the application. 4.20
Clearly, if quarry companies find it difficult to work in the right direction, or in the right phase order, or to the right depth, Prof Brassington has a very valid point.
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Monday, 13 May 2019

Don’t always trust the minerals press to tell the whole story

Take the Silverstone debacle. Tarmac gear up for Silverstone resurfacing, says Agg-Net – "a specialist publishing and exhibition company that serves the quarrying, recycling and natural stone industries":
This essential track maintenance work will take place over 20 days between 10–30 June and will see a bespoke and highly durable asphalt solution laid that has been specifically designed to withstand the high demands and stresses of vehicles competing in professional racing series.
And indeed Tarmac has been called in by our premier motor racing venue – as we posted in Silverstone to be resurfaced again – this time by Tarmac.

But you mustn’t always trust the minerals press to give the whole story.

Because, bizarrely, Agg-Net’s article manages to entirely avoid mentioning Aggregate Industries. They avoid mentioning that AI resurfaced Silverstone only last year, or that AI suffered a PR nightmare when riders aquaplaned off its new asphalt at 150mph and sustained serious injuries and races had to be cancelled, or that AI tried to gag a journalist over the affair, or that AI’s promised investigation into what went wrong has still not been made public, or that Tarmac has only been called in to redo AI’s malfunctioning work. Funny that.

But we’re being a bit harsh on Agg-Net. Because, as in too much journalism today, Agg-Net has simply rehashed a press release. Whose? Tarmac’s.

How very decent of Tarmac – as a competitor – not to make the most of AI’s troubles. Other construction journalists have been less kind:

It will be the second time in two years that Silverstone has been resurfaced. The surface laid by Aggregate Industries last year has come in for criticism for its performance in wet weather.
The circuit was relaid by Aggregate Industries before the season began last year but complaints about the surface by drivers led to the cancellation of the MotoGP race.
Aggregate Industries - who carried out the initial resurfacing project before last season’s race - launched a full review of its work after race promoter Dorna was forced to cancel the race for the first time since 1980 after the start was delayed by six hours as repeated efforts were made to clear standing water. It had to refund 56,000 ticket holders.

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Wednesday, 8 May 2019

Silverstone to be resurfaced again – this time by Tarmac

Silverstone is clearly wanting to avoid a repeat of last year’s fiasco – when its track was resurfaced by Aggregate Industries, and races were subsequently cancelled. Readers will be all too aware of the fun and games that ensued – covered in way too much detail on this blog.

Next month, the track will be resurfaced again – this time by Tarmac, who will be "working closely with Dromo, an Italian circuit consultant company" – at a reported cost of up to £5m. Silverstone will hope these parties really are racing circuit experts.


It’s unlikely they’ll make a worse job, judging by Lewis Hamilton’s comments about last year’s resurfacing:
The people they hired did the worst job ever. It’s the bumpiest track I’ve ever experienced
Have the lawyers left the scene yet? Seemingly not, according to Silverstone's MD Stuart Pringle:
We are considering the options available to us as regards last year’s resurfacing
Why Tarmac? In another interview:
In the end, Aggregate decided they didn’t want to do it and they stepped back, so we’ve gone with Tarmac.
The journalist that AI tried to gag, Mat Oxley, writing in Motor Sport Magazine, quotes hopeful Mr Pringle as saying:
Dromo has very exacting standards and Tarmac are well up for this – they are very aware that the eyes of the world are on them. Dromo’s Jarno Zaffelli has a very precise methodology and his approach to the design of the asphalt mix is very scientific. Tarmac want to get it right and even they are learning from Dromo.
To me, the big deal is that Dromo are involved. They know what they are doing
with the obvious inference that somebody else didn't.




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