A key element of many FM Conway contracts is the ability to respond quickly to emergency situations. In early 2023, the surfacing division, under its contract with National Highways, was asked to carry out urgent repairs to the A23 between junction 11 of the M23 and Handcross in West Sussex.
The initial plan was to preserve and retexture the existing surface layer, with some localised repairs. But site visits established the road surface was in a worse condition than anticipated, deteriorating rapidly, and a far more substantial – and urgent – repair project was required.
Planing was done by three brand new Wirtgen W210FI milling machines, all running on Hydrotreated Vegetable Oil (HVO) fuel. They come equipped with a variety of innovations, including the Mill Assist machine control system, which optimises performance by automatically adjusting the speed of milling according to the road condition and temperature.
Another innovation is the Wirtgen Performance Tracker (WPT), which uses a laser scanner and GPS positioning to give the operator information, like the area being planed, depth, density of the material taken out, fuel and water consumption, all in real time.
The total global warming potential associated with the A23 surfacing project was measured using FM Conway’s ‘whole life surfacing model’, which captures greenhouse gas emissions from the embodied carbon, operational activities and end-of-life processing or treatment.
The model uses carbon data from specialised lifecycle impact assessment studies and national databases, plus data from the project itself, such as fuel usage for plant and transport, and gas and electricity at asphalt plants. It was used to assess the whole life carbon for the project, and to compare the carbon impact with industry standard figures to identify potential carbon savings in future.
“This was initially supposed to be a preservation scheme, but on inspection, the condition of the surface had gone beyond that. The road now needed to be planed out and reinstated with a new surface course layer and binder course on areas with further deterioration”. Andy Weymouth FM Conway’s Framework Delivery Manager for National Highways Pavement Delivery Framework
Instead of a two-night scheme laying 700 tonnes of material, the team had to prepare for a nine-week resurfacing programme to plane off and lay 10,000t. There was little time to mobilise, as the work had to be done before the road deteriorated further, and also ahead of Gatwick Airport’s peak summer travel season.
“We had just four weeks to mobilise, which is very quick for a scheme of this size,” said Paul Padfield Surfacing Director, FM Conway.
FM Conway’s self-delivery model pays dividends situations like this, as the business can control materials production and supply, plant and equipment, transport and people.
The asphalt plants at Erith and Heathrow geared up to produce the material, and the recycling plant at Chelsfield found space to store 10,000t of planings ready for use as Recycled Asphalt Product (RAP) on another job.
“It is up to us to manage the availability of all the main aspects of the contract – the lorries, aggregate and bitumen – and we are good at that,” said Simon Dutton Senior Contract Manager, FM Conway.
With an unexpected change, requiring a significantly more complex programme of works, FM Conway displayed the full benefits of its self-delivery model, pivoting to an extensive project to deliver urgent repairs to keep road users safe ahead of another busy summer season for the network.