Development of innovative materials and products for road surface treatments will be supported by a new fund established in memory of the Department for Transport’s former head of highways maintenance, innovation and resilience Steve Berry, who passed away earlier this year.
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The Local Council Roads Innovation Group (LCRIG) is now inviting highway authorities, universities, private sector companies and innovative individuals to come forward with proposals that can be trialled on the network.
Successful bidders will receive a share of £150,000 which is being made available through the LCRIG / Steve Berry ‘Think Exceptional’ Innovation Fund, which is sponsored by road markings specialist WJ Group.
“If you are an innovator who is hungry to get their ideas heard and make a change, then come forward now,” urged LCRIG’s chief executive Martin Duffy. “Ultimately, this is about innovation delivering value across the whole market.”
LCRIG has established an Infrastructure Innovation Board – which includes representation from the Department for Transport – that will help to administer the fund, assess the initial funding applications and vote on which proposals to support.
WJ Group’s operations director Martin Webb commented: “Too often innovation can get stuck in the starting blocks, but this initiative will help inspire ideas and more importantly provide the support needed to take action in bringing those innovations to life.”
LCRIG says it hopes the industry will also get involved with the administration of other innovation funds targeted at different market segments, such as street lighting technology, signal technology or traffic management.
Also this week, Highways England has detailed plans to trial the use of high strength graphene material – which promises to extend the life of road surfaces – on a section of the A1 in North East England later this summer. Graphene will be added to bitumen used on the road resurfacing job.
Highways England is working with the University of Manchester’s Graphene Engineering Innovation Centre and materials testing specialist Pavement Testing Services to research applications for graphene, which could also include strengthening steel safety barriers and road markings.
(Photograph: Adam Bowery)
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