West Midlands picked to get slice of £30m for decarbonisation of highways
The West Midlands has been chosen as one of seven areas to get a slice of £30 million Government money to decarbonise UK highways.
A new Highways CO2llaboration Centre for materials decarbonisation will be created with Transport for West Midlands supporting upskilling and developing a team to decarbonise highways and showcasing and monitoring innovative decarbonised materials.
Other projects across the country include carbon capturing cement and green waste being used to make asphalt.
Roads Minister Richard Holden said: “The UK is a world leader in technology and innovation and we must use that strength to both drive decarbonisation and the next generation of high tech jobs that go alongside it.
“We are supporting this vital agenda to help level up through £30 million funding for ground-breaking projects and boosting regional connections to support growth.
“The Government is determined to create good, well-paid jobs - via innovation and investment across the UK - as we accelerate the road to net zero.”
Live Labs 2 is designed to ensure innovations are shared across the whole of the UK and bidders were encouraged to create partnerships across the public and private sector, and academia.
Live Labs 2 is funded by the Department of Transport (DfT) and organised by The Association of Directors of Environment, Economy, Planning & Transport (ADEPT), which represents 'directors of place' who are responsible for providing day-to-day services, such as local highways, as well as strategic long-term delivery.
Mark Kemp, president of ADEPT, said: "Tackling the carbon impact of our highways’ infrastructure is critical to our path to net zero but hard to address, so I am pleased that bidding was so competitive. Live Labs 2 has a huge ambition – to fundamentally change how we embed decarbonisation into our decision-making and to share our learning with the wider sector to enable behaviour change.
"Each project will bring local authority led innovation and a collaborative approach to create a long-lasting transformation of business as usual.
"I am looking forward to the opportunity to learn from our successful bidders and taking that into my own organisation.”
