For the resurfacing of A413 Wendover Bypass, local residents insisted on a low road noise solution. Here’s how the contractor exceeded their expectations.
By Paul Kidd, technical director, Eurovia Surfacing
Paul Kidd is the technical director at Eurovia Surfacing and oversaw the project to resurface the A413 Wendover Bypass, which went on to win the 2021 CIHT Autodesk Innovation of the Year Award, as well as scooping the overall CIHT Winner!
Eurovia carries out the resurfacing work on behalf of Transport for Buckinghamshire and Ringway Jacobs. With HS2 coming through the county, there was £1.51m funding made available to deal with the objections surrounding the noise of the construction traffic near the town on the A413 bypass.
There were numerous options considered including high-noise barriers but the residents voted for a very low noise solution. We measured the noise levels for the existing bypass and aimed for a five decibel noise reduction. Jean Lefebvre (JLUK), part of the Eurovia group, designed the low-noise asphalt and we looked at ways of improving the method of installation to maximise the long-term performance and durability of the final road surface.
Using digital technology to minimise disruption, we brought a lot of state-of-the-art equipment to the project to hit it hard and get the levels to a race track standard. We wanted to get rid of the joints – a traditional weak point – and guarantee a surface that would be fit for Lewis Hamilton!
It was the first time we’d used such high-tech equipment to lay asphalt at 6m-wide sections with new planers and digitally controlled levelling systems. We were guaranteeing the surface for ten years, so there was a lot of pressure from a technical point of view. We had a continuous supply of 25 asphalt lorries and the paver didn’t stop moving over the course of each shift for the whole 2km, so the only joint is down the middle, not across the lane itself – that’s something you notice when you drive over it.
The result was that we reduced the noise levels by 5.2 decibels – so slightly ahead of target – and the residents and councillors were very happy. The lower noise levels are the equivalent of reducing traffic volumes by 50%. We also saved 24% on the original budget.
The other bonus is that there was a massive carbon reduction with our new practices too, saving 95,000kg of CO2 as well as the reduced carbon on materials.
We did all of the work during the night under a total road closure. There was an initial conversation about running during the day, with a single lane remaining open for traffic, but local disruption would have been significant. For us, though, that total closure improves the quality and the output as you can work on the whole road, so there are cost savings too. Also, the health and safety of our workers was a major factor.
In addition, it was a whole digital end-to-end project, which we've been pushing since then and a lot of clients are now asking for the same level of detail. Transport Scotland is now specifying it as its standard and National Highways is starting to use it too, with more councils wanting the same technology.
For us it’s about giving people the right tools and investment. We have our Formula Road training programme and we’re about to launch the second version of that. We needed to guarantee the workmanship and we’ve trained all of our people to get more than the basics right; to consistently deliver better than British Standard.
Those quality aspects have really upskilled the workforce and we’ve seen the levels of remedial work come down and the improvements and quality going up as a result. The staff are buying into the new technology and taking ownership of it and seeing the benefits of job security with us winning long-term contracts as a result.
It was probably the level of digital technology we used. Things such as the intelligent rollers and some of the levelling technology wasn’t new but we used it in a new way on the planers. The monitoring isn’t something that a lot of contractors use, but if you’ve got the right scheme, then you can deploy it.
Using the GPS systems, no part of the road is left unrolled and the front and rear rollers are talking to each other as the asphalt temperature is being recorded and uploaded to the cloud in real time. We know where each load is paved, which section of the road it’s on and recording the weather and temperature at the time of installation.
That automation allowed us to prove the quality afterwards, rather than having an engineer constantly carrying out manual testing. The technology meant we could reduce human error and deliver exceptional ride quality results within a 1-2mm tolerance. Overall, the Wendover Bypass has been a great launchpad for our future work and a real model for partnership working to deliver great outcomes for local people and the environment.
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