M25 20% Recycled Asphalt Pavement (RAP)

The Project

The M25 is the busiest motorway in the UK, encircling most of Greater London and linking a number of other key strategic roads, ports and airports to the rest of the UK.

National Highways have recently released their road map to achieving net zero carbon by 2050. Supporting this plan, as part of our ongoing contract with Milestone on the M25 Connect Plus framework, Toppesfield installed a 20% Recycled Asphalt Pavement (RAP) surface course on a section of the motorway.

Our Work

Toppesfield successfully installed a Thin Surface Course System (TSCS) containing 20% RAP supplied by FM Conway from their state of the art Heathrow asphalt plant. This represents a significant step change in the solution to achieving a sustainable approach to the maintenance of the M25.

With conventional Cl942 TSCS materials containing a maximum permitted 10% RAP this new material represents a 100% increase in recycled content. This was only possible due to the strict quality controls imposed by FM Conway at their recycling facilities and the extensive testing undertaken in the laboratory prior to supplying the material onto the network. To ensure that the material performs satisfactorily additional testing was undertaken during manufacture and installation of the product to demonstrate full compliance with all relevant specifications. In line with other materials laid by Toppesfield on the M25 this high RAP content material was also supplied in a Warm Mix variant which, alongside the increased recycled content, supports National Highways roadmap to net zero carbon by 2050 and also our own Topp26 goal of reducing our impact on the environment.

In addition to 20% RAP in surface course materials FM Conway and Toppesfield will also be supplying and installing binder materials with 60% RAP as standard onto the M25 network which again is a significant increase from the current 50% recycled content.