Following the success of the first Gipave® trial in the UK in 2019, Milestone Infrastructure has continued working with Oxfordshire County Council, Aggregate Industries and Iterchimica to develop the use of innovative materials to improve roads while reducing whole life carbon outputs. This has led the team to trial Gipave on Marsh Lane in Oxford, which carries around 10,000 vehicles a day. Half of a 700-metre stretch of the road has been laid with Gipave, while the rest has been resurfaced using conventional asphalt, so that the two surfaces can be compared accurately.
Gipave, which has been developed by Iterchimica, is the result of a 6-year research program in collaboration with Dircta Plus, G.Eco and the University of Milan-Bicocca. It is a graphene-enhanced polymeric supermodifier containing also a specific type of selected waste plastics which would not normally be recycled, usually ending up in waste-to-energy plants. All tests conducted so far by Universities and Official Laboratories have shown excellent results in terms of increased performances and extension of the pavement service life.
Increasing the lifespan of roads will reduce the need for maintenance works, bringing tangible benefits to road users and local residents. In fact, using innovative materials that last longer helps reduce carbon emissions and achieve long-term savings. Furthermore, besides containing waste plastics that would not normally be recycled, asphalt pavements laid with Gipave can be entirely recycled – promoting the “circular economy”, which reduces waste and the extraction of new materials.
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