Liverpool given £4m funding boost for ‘greener roads’

Liverpool City Council has been awarded £4m from the Department of Transport’s Live Labs 2: Decarbonising Local Roads competition, after successfully pitching an innovative idea to reduce the carbon footprint when designing and resurfacing roads.

The funding will be invested across the north, south and east of the city, to explore how best to green up the city’s approach from design to construction.

The city council will work in partnership with Colas and Liverpool John Moores University to assist in the research and development of material processes. Local highways contractors, Colas, Dowhigh and Huyton Civils, have all signed up to deliver the pilot schemes.

Live Labs 2 is funded by the Department of Transport (DfT) and organised by The Association of Directors of Environment, Economy, Planning & Transport (ADEPT).

Liverpool is one of seven local authorities to receive funding form the £30m programme, and has joined forces with a consortium of other councils including Cornwall, Devon, Hampshire and Somerset County Councils.

Councillor Dan Barrington, cabinet member for climate change and highways ,Liverpool City Council, said: “I’m delighted that Liverpool has received this Live Labs funding as it will allow the city to deliver a truly ground-breaking piece of work on how we can change the nature of road construction and maintenance.”

Karen Agbabiaka, interim chief highways officer, Liverpool City Council added: “The research and development stage is going to be a critical phase and it’s brilliant to have Liverpool John Moores University, as well as our local roads maintenance contractors Dowhigh, Colas and Huyton Civil all involved.”

Mark Kemp, president of ADEPT, commented: “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.”

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