Latest news & events

Graham Martin, Head of Commissioning and Project Delivery for the Liverpool Live Labs 2 initiative shares an update on all the latest news and achievements from the team.

Over the past three years the Live Labs 2 programme has given us a unique opportunity to challenge how we design, deliver and maintain our highways network. 

It represents a step change in how we think about highways delivery: enabling continued innovation, improving efficiency, and adopting solutions — from materials to delivery models — that actively contribute to decarbonisation while improving the environment in which our communities live and travel.

From the outset, ambition always extended well beyond the delivery of individual schemes or the testing of innovative materials and our part in the programme has helped us to leave a legacy for local communities and for the future of Liverpool’s road network.

By championing new products, materials and approaches that reduce carbon across the construction, operation and maintenance of our highways, we aimed to set a new standard for a cleaner and more resilient transport infrastructure. 

This is about more than delivering projects through a time‑limited programme. It is about embedding sustainable practice for the long term and ensuring that learning from Live Labs becomes part of our everyday BAU (Business as Usual) activity.

Collaboration as the foundation for learning

One of the most valuable aspects of the programme has been the opportunity to work alongside and learn from our delivery partners through the council’s Live Labs 2 team. Each partner has brought their own expertise, experience and innovative thinking. Together we have created an environment where ideas can be tested, challenged and refined in real‑world conditions.

This collaborative approach has allowed council staff to work differently, moving away from traditional client‑contractor relationships and towards a shared commitment to learning and improvement. Communities have also benefited, not only through improved infrastructure but through the confidence that their city is actively exploring better, more sustainable ways of maintaining and improving its roads.

Importantly, the legacy of Live Labs 2, particularly in Liverpool, is not confined to what has been built. Ongoing monitoring and evaluation are central to understanding the true impact of the innovations trialled. This evidence will inform future commercial, environmental and operational decisions around the deliverability, durability and whole‑life performance of new materials and techniques. 

At the same time, being part of the wider Live Labs community gives us access to learning beyond Liverpool, allowing us to adopt and adapt innovations tested elsewhere.

From trials to transformation – Princess Drive and Garston Church Road

Live Labs 2 has enabled us to move confidently from small‑scale trials to larger‑scale application. Princess Drive and Garston Church Road are two significant schemes where innovative products, previously tested in more limited settings, have been scaled up and integrated into major highway improvement works.

At Princess Drive, Milepave was used to deliver a lower‑carbon surfacing solution, while Garston Church Road saw the use of Agesafe with Rubber Pave. Early indications at both locations have been positive, demonstrating that innovation can perform effectively at scale. These schemes have reinforced a key learning, that there is no single solution that works everywhere. Material selection must respond to local context, traffic levels, environmental conditions and community needs. However, lower‑carbon options are now firmly embedded in our optioneering process, rather than being considered as exceptions.

These projects have also played an important role in skills development. They have provided real‑world learning opportunities for Liverpool’s apprentices, exposing them to materials and techniques that will shape the future of the highways sector. As climate resilience and carbon literacy become essential attributes for highway engineers, Live Labs 2 is helping us build that capability and skillset within our workforce.

Designing resilience into the network

The increasing frequency of extreme weather events has highlighted the need to design resilience into our highway network. Winter conditions have provided a valuable opportunity to test innovative drainage and surfacing solutions under challenging circumstances.

Across the city, we have trialled lower‑carbon, permeable drainage interventions to assess their ability to manage surface water more effectively. Kiacrete has performed well during periods of heavy rain and wintery showers, with no pooling observed at the trial location. These early results suggest potential for wider application in areas prone to standing water.

We have also scaled up the use of FlexiPave in the Thomas Lane area, building on its earlier use at Bowring Park Road. Persistent ponding near mature trees had previously caused issues, but FlexiPave’s permeable properties help water drain through the surface, while its flexibility allows it to accommodate movement from tree roots. This approach demonstrates how innovative materials can respond to complex urban environments rather than working against them.

More recently, Rosehill’s Hydro Trench drainage system has been installed near Prospect Vale, a route heavily used by walkers and cyclists and connecting to Newsham Way. Preventing pooling here is particularly important for safety and accessibility. A second installation at Castleton Close will also be closely monitored to assess whether it can reduce residual pooling on access to the Trans Pennine Trail. Together, these interventions are helping us understand how targeted, lower‑carbon drainage solutions can improve resilience across the network.

Innovation beyond the road surface

The Liverpool Live Labs 2 project has also encouraged us to look beyond traditional highway elements and explore how technology can support both operational efficiency and carbon reduction. One such example is our recent demonstration of adaptive lighting on a key route into the city, which has now entered its monitoring and evaluation phase.

Developed in close collaboration with our streetlighting contractors, this intervention highlights the value of partnership working. Adaptive lighting has the potential to reduce energy consumption while maintaining safety and user confidence, particularly during periods of lower demand. The monitoring phase will provide critical data on performance, user experience and carbon impact, helping us determine whether this approach should be adopted more widely.

This collaborative, evidence‑led approach reflects the core ethos of Live Labs: test, learn, evaluate and embed what works.

Looking to the future

As the demonstrator phase of Live Labs 2 draws to a close, our focus increasingly turns to the future. The final innovations to be introduced include technologies that, if successful, could enable streetlighting powered by solar and wind energy in locations not connected to the traditional electricity grid.

Located on the waterfront of the River Mersey, these trials reflect our ambition to think differently about how infrastructure is powered and maintained, particularly in challenging or constrained environments. They also underline the importance of aligning highways innovation with wider environmental and sustainability goals.

The learning from Live Labs 2, including everything from successes to what requires further refinement, will be shared widely, including at the LCRIG Learning and Innovation Forum later this year. By doing so, we are contributing not just to Liverpool’s future highways strategy, but to the national conversation on decarbonising local road networks.

Making innovation Business as Usual

Ultimately, the success of Live Labs 2 will be measured not only by the innovations trialled, but by how effectively the learning is embedded into everyday practice. For our team, putting the live into Live Labs means ensuring that innovation does not stop at the pilot stage. It means using evidence to change specifications, inform investment decisions, upskill our workforce and reshape how we approach maintenance and improvement schemes.

Because of the work we’ve done during the Live Labs 2 programme, we are now building a highways service that is more resilient, more sustainable and better equipped to meet the challenges of the future. 

The legacy of the programme lies in the shift from innovation as a project, to innovation as a way of working.

Further information

Find out more about Live Labs 2 here. 

You can find further information on the Liverpool project here. 

Author

Graham Martin is Head of Commissioning and Project Delivery at the Liverpool Live Labs 2 project.