Environmentally friendly highway improvements underway on key Wantage road

A section of a key main road through Wantage is being improved in a carbon-neutral project using recycled and sustainable materials along with tree and wildflower planting and solar powered traffic signals.

Oxfordshire County Council, Milestone Infrastructure and their suppliers are working on a large layby/service road on the A417 Reading Road in the town. Work began on 14 August and is scheduled to last for five weeks. Environmentally friendly kerbing, bins, asphalt, bollards and concrete are all part of the scheme.

Councillor Andrew Gant, the county council’s Cabinet Member for Highway Management, said: “This otherwise routine scheme of maintenance and minor improvement provides a unique opportunity to incorporate a variety of innovative solutions in one location, and it serves well to demonstrate Oxfordshire County Council’s commitment to being a leader in sustainable highway maintenance and to put action to tackle climate change at the heart of our work.

“The list of sustainable materials being deployed is impressive and we hope it points the way to a different future in highway repair. My thanks go to our county council officers and their colleagues at Milestone for embracing this fresh way of doing things with one eye on the environment.”

Declan Moss, Operations Manager for Milestone said: “We are excited to take this project forward on behalf of the council; affording our graduate team members an opportunity to research sustainable products as part of their learning. The delivery of the work will be supervised by a graduate engineer in conjunction with our own site agent”.

Material and products listed below form the basis of the project with their sustainable benefits.