BBC NEWS
Rubber highway to beat congestion
By Jonathan Fildes
Science and technology reporter, BBC News website
A congestion-beating project that could lead to some of the UK's 9,000
miles (14,500km) of disused railway being paved with rubber, has been
launched.
The flexible highways are made of panels of shredded car tyres laid over
the existing tracks.
New thoroughfares could be shared by both cars and trams travelling at
up to 50mph (80km/h) say Holdfast, the company behind the scheme.
But some users of disused railways do not support the scheme.
"We would like to see these routes converted into walking and cycling
routes," said Gill Harrison, a spokesperson for sustainable transport
charity Sustrans.
The charity has converted approximately 1,000 miles (1,600km) of disused
railways into part of the National Cycle Network.
"More road space does not automatically mean less congestion," she said.
"More roads just get filled up with more cars. We're not saying that
cars do not have their place, but ultimately we've all got to think
about other ways of getting around."
Burning rubber
The rubber roads are being developed by Holdfast Rubber Highway (HRH)
and may provide a use for some of the estimated 50m tyres disposed of in
the UK each year.
As of July 7, EU legislation will make it illegal to bury car tyres in
landfill sites or burn them, making alternative uses like this more
attractive.
It took four men five days to put down 300m of road
Peter Coates Smith, Holdfast Rubber Highway
Parent company, Holdfast Level Crossings, already makes the rubber
decking found at pedestrian and rail crossings.
The company has extended this idea to create cheap interlocking panels
that can be laid between the gaps on disused railway lines.
Each mile of track would use 354,000 scrap tyres. Individual panels are
made "cold" so there are few emissions in the production process.
A 300m (980ft) demonstration track, funded by the not-for-profit Waste
and Resources Action Programme (Wrap), has been built at a car depot in
Corby, Northamptonshire.
Over eight weeks, more than 8,000 cars will drive over the surface to
make sure it can stand up to wear and tear.
However, Mr Coates Smith, the managing director of Holdfast, said he was
more interested in seeing how quickly the road could be laid.
"It took four men five days to put down 300m of road," he said. "The
panels we'd be using [in the future] are three times as long, so you can
imagine 900m in five days."
Limited appeal
Eventually the jam-busting technology could be used to build a network
of roads on the network of "dead" lines, closed by Dr Beeching in the 1960s.
The company is keen to stress that they do not intend to build on
disused lines in rural idylls. Instead, they say, the rubber highways
will be a cheap alternative to urban bypasses and routes into conurbations.
"We're talking about £1.4m per mile compared with £20m per mile for a
new road," said Mr Coates Smith.
The Highways Agency disputes these costs. They say that £20m buys you a
mile of 3-lane motorway, complete with a hard shoulder, rather than just
a single-lane rubber highway.
In addition, some people believe that the network of new roads would
have limited appeal to most people.
"These tracks are generally disused because they go to places that
people don't want to go to," said Roger Ford, industry and technology
editor of Modern Railways magazine.
Mr Ford also says that most disused railways have already had their
sleepers and rails removed and tend to be overgrown, meaning that
installing the road may be more difficult than envisaged.
Keen interest
This is not the first time that rubber has been incorporated into road
surfaces. Many roads in Europe and the US have a small portion of rubber
crumb mixed with the asphalt to make the road quieter.
However these surfaces have never really taken off in the UK because the
damp weather made the road surfaces crack and disintegrate.
Mr Coates Smith believes the new road surface, made almost entirely of
rubber, will not suffer the same problems.
"There are no potholes, there's no cracking, no spoiling from frost and
it's very quiet" he said.
Maintenance costs are also very low as individual panels can be replaced
in 15 minutes, according to Mr Coates Smith.
In addition, as the routes were originally intended for trains, they are
also ideally suited for trams.
These carriages would run on the rails, left exposed between the rubber
mats, and could carry between 50-100 people, Holdfast believes.
They would share the road with cars. However, the thin lanes would mean
that overtaking would be almost impossible.
However, Mr Coates Smith believes that the environmental advantages and
the congestion beating nature of the system will make it a success.
He already has a number of companies, transport authorities and local
councils, including Fife and Gosport, interested in the technology.
"The response we've had is amazing. My phone has not stopped ringing."
Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/1/hi/sci/tech/5034912.stm
Published: 2006/05/31 19:24:56 GMT
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