Supply of road maintenance material to west London has begun to be enhanced following start of operations at a new asphalt plant alongside the M4 near Heathrow, which was officially opened on Friday.

The £10M plant will produce up to 300,000t of asphalt a year and promises to increase the volume of recycled materials that can be worked back into carriageway renewals. Operations started in June and the plant, run by contractor FM Conway, was formally unveiled by Transport for London’s asset management director Dana Skelley.

“I’m honoured to open this plant which I’m sure will play a valuable part in delivering London’s £5Bn surface investment programme over the next 10 years,” she said. “The plant also demonstrates a commitment to lowering carbon footprints through recycling.”

FM Conway’s chief executive Michael Conway said that the Heathrow plant, together with another company asphalt facility at Erith in north Kent, will be capable of recycling 150,000t of planings into asphalt mixes by next year to help reduce the consumption of virgin aggregates.

Heathrow Asphalt, as it is called, is set up to manufacture cold and warm mix materials as well as conventional hot mix. FM Conway is also understood to be considering the use of local waterways to bring raw materials to the Heathrow asphalt plant.

This summer the company also opened a bitumen import terminal at Gravesend to welcome supplies of binder from Belgium.

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