Devon County Council: A382 (Including Jetty Marsh Link Road) - Carbon Negative Project

Theme:

Corridor and place-based decarbonisation.

Local authorities:

Devon County Council.

Overview

The A382 Live Labs project will reduce carbon on a new road construction scheme using changes in materials, design and processes. The changes will apply to all parts of the project and use natural solutions as well as new innovations to alter how road schemes are delivered in the future.

Project description:

The A382 (Including Jetty Marsh Link Road) - Carbon Negative Project aims to radically accelerate the reduction of carbon emissions associated with the construction and maintenance of UK highways. It aims to demonstrate that by combining current and developing initiatives, carbon negative highways are possible.

The project will test new innovations, processes, materials and standards on a proposed highways scheme in order to demonstrate the carbon savings that are feasible on a project which is typical of highways projects nationwide. The A382 project provides a unique ‘Live Laboratory’ opportunity to drive carbon changes to the design, construction and maintenance. The scheme is currently in the detailed design stage under the stewardship of a partnership between Devon County Council (DCC) and Milestone Infrastructure Ltd.

Building on the significant work that DCC has already undertaken with the University of Exeter on measuring and evaluating carbon and working closely with other Live Labs the project will devise a route that delivers the A382 scheme as carbon negative over the whole life cycle of the project. The variety of infrastructure in the project mean that there will be learning that can be quickly applied to a broad spectrum of UK highways projects. The Live Labs proposal is to fund initiatives that come at an additional cost, to ensure nothing is cost prohibitive and to develop the blueprint for future projects to follow.

Project value:

£3.7m