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LOW CARBON
Carbon infrastructure assessment tool launched
The Built Environment Carbon Database (BECD) benchmark tool for infrastructure carbon assessment has won industry backing, with Mott MacDonald the first company to provide data.
The BECD was developed by the Building Cost Information Service (BCIS) to enable the calculation of embodied carbon in all elements of a project. Collaborators include the ICE, Aecom, Arup, Bam Nuttall, the Department for Transport, the Infrastructure & Projects Authority, Mott MacDonald and Skanska. Initially the BECD will focus on highways assets.
It is loaded with infrastructure carbon data sourced from major Mott MacDonald road projects. Data on projects in other sectors will follow.
MATERIALS
Zero carbon cement production trial gets underway
The Cement 2 Zero project is trialling zero-carbon cement production. It uses recovered cement as flux in steel recycling and creates a by-product that can be turned into clinker for cement production.
The method is based on a Cambridge University discovery that the chemical composition of used cement is like that of the lime flux used in electric arc furnaces. It is being tested in a 7t furnace using recycled cement and scrap steel.
Tarmac is testing the clinker, while Balfour Beatty and AtkinsRéalis are defining testing protocols for the cement.
LOW CARBON
Insitu cold recycling cuts carbon on road resurfacing job
Oxfordshire County Council has used an insitu recycling technique to reduce the carbon used in road resurfacing by roughly 70%. Insitu cold recycling involves pulverising the existing carriageway surface and mixing it with foamed bitumen and cementitious powder to create a new 300mm thick strengthened carriageway.
The material is compacted to the required thickness before surface dressing is applied. The council applied the technique to a road north of Berrick Salome, near Wallingford where the equivalent to 227t of carbon was eliminated.
SAFETY
Body worn sensors to improve rack worker safety
KeolisAmey Docklands, which operates the Docklands Light Railway for Transport for London, has joined forces with tech start-up Tended to develop geofencing technology. The aim is to improve track worker safety using Tended’s Planning Dashboard.
Safe working zones (geofences) and designated access points can be created before workers enter a worksite. Wearables assigned to those zones are worn by the track workers and pinpoint their proximity to geofence boundaries. If a worker leaves a safe area, the wearable alerts to the danger so that they move back to safety.
- More news newcivilengineer.com/innovative-thinking