WRAP funds all rubber road and rail highway

Holdfast Level Crossings Ltd is the company running the trials after responding to WRAP's call for demonstration trials for used tyres.

” This is an interesting and unique project which has the potential to use high tonnages of recycled rubber from UK post-consumer tyres “
– Steve Waite, WRAP
The company believes that its Holdfast Rubber Highway has the potential to recycle an average of 354,000 tyres in every one mile stretch of rubber highway.

Holdfast has said that using recycled tyres is not only good for the environment, but it is also substantially cheaper than the cost of current road building.

For the purpose of the trial, a 300 metre section of rubber highway is being installed at the site of a car distribution centre in Corby, Northamptonshire.

The trial will incorporate 8,000 vehicle movements over an eight week period to assess early life performance of the Highway.

Unique


Existing railway sidings will be used to construct the trial utilising 664 panels, each 1.8 metres long, containing bound rubber crumb from UK post consumer tyres.

Each panel has a unique patented connection system which allowed 300m of ready to use single carriageways in five days.

The Holdfast Rubber Highway has been designed to be exceptionally fast to install on existing new track beds.

And the cost is estimated to be less than 1.4 million per mile, according to WRAP the cost of new road build averages in excess of 20 million per mile.

Steve Waite, tyres material project manager, said: “This is an interesting and unique project which has the potential to use high tonnages of recycled rubber from UK post-consumer tyres.

“I am pleased that the WRAP Tyres programme has been able to award the funding to make this project possible and eagerly anticipate the results,” he said.

WRAP is providing funding for the programme following an open call for demonstration trials using UK post consumer tyres in a range of new applications.

The programme began in April 2005 to break down the barriers to the collection, segregation and reprocessing of waste tyres, to develop alternative end uses for the recovered material, and to develop their markets.