CEMEX’s CarbonNeutral®️ Asphalt Product Helps Liverpool County Council’s Resurfacing Programme Save 16 Tonnes of CO2e

VIALOW Zero, supplied by CEMEX’s Liverpool Docklands asphalt plant, was selected by the Council for Lark Lane, Liverpool. A vibrant hub of the city on the edge of the historic Sefton Park, Lark Lane is home to many popular local boutiques, bars and restaurants. With combined high-density pedestrian footfall and road user traffic, a continuous stream of round-the-clock access is required on Lark Lane, with businesses facing directly onto the busy street. 

Working with Dowhigh Contractors, the use of warm asphalt (VIALOW) not only reduced CO2e, but also lowered the impact of construction fumes during the re-surfacing, creating a better environment for local residents, pedestrians, and Dowhigh’s contractor workforce throughout the project. 

Liverpool County Council were also able to reduce the total time needed for traffic restrictions and road closure, with VIALOW as the asphalt reaches the appropriate trafficking temperatures faster than conventional hot mix asphalt. The re-opening of Lark Lane was fast-tracked as a result, minimising the overall disruption to the immediate local community and busy road users, as well as car fumes from stationary queuing cars.  

Alongside the reduced carbon in the mix, Liverpool County Council chose to offset the residual CO2e to make it a CarbonNeutral product, in accordance with The CarbonNeutral Protocol.  By offsetting the residual CO2e from the 284 tonnes of asphalt used for the project, 16 tonnes of CO2e was offset; the equivalent of the emissions generated by the annual electricity use for 24 homes on Lark Lane for a year. 
VIALOW is a range of low temperature, low carbon asphalts from CEMEX. A specially formulated bitumen additive is used to enable manufacture at up to 40°C lower than standard asphalt mixes with no compromise in performance, and the added benefit of achieving up to 20% reduction in embodied carbon emissions.

Allan Jones, Head of Business and Strategy, Dowhigh commented: “The Lark Lane project was successfully completed with CEMEX, using VIALOW, which helped us save 16 tonnes of carbon. This project will hopefully be the beginning of a determined move to make our roads greener and more sustainable for the future.” 

Pete Hoare, CEMEX’s Asphalt Area Manager, added: “We want to make it easier for local authorities and councils to specify lower carbon solutions. As a result, we worked closely with Liverpool County Council to provide a hardworking solution that not only reduced CO2e, but also the impact on the local community environment as well.” 

“Stationary vehicles at traffic lights on road closures can create 4 times as many pollutants, when compared to moving vehicles, so it’s really important that we help to minimise traffic restrictions and the resulting car fumes, whilst roads are being maintained and repaired. Vialow is the optimum asphalt solution to increase overall productivity in restricted areas, whilst significantly saving CO2e to drive forward the government’s low-carbon economy by 2050.”

VIALOW belongs to the Vertua® family of sustainable building materials now offered by CEMEX as part of its commitment to enhancing the environmental credentials of its operations. This product group also includes low carbon concrete and admixtures offerings..

For more information about VIALOW visit: https://www.cemex.co.uk/vialow

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Notes to Editors: 

CEMEX announced its Climate Action strategy; ‘Future in Action – Committed to Net Zero CO2’ in February 2020, along with updated targets in November 2022 and as part of this, by 2030 it plans:
•    To be below 430kg of CO2 per ton of cementitious material, equivalent to a 47% reduction*.
•    To reduce the carbon content per cubic meter of concrete to 165kg, equivalent to a 35% reduction.
•    To reach 65% in clean electricity consumption by 2030.
•    To reduce Scope 3 transport emissions by 30% by 2030.
•    For Vertua lower-carbon to account for majority (50%+) of cement and concrete sales by 2025.
•    To manage up to 40M tons of waste per year by 2030.

* According to our 1990 baseline

About CEMEX:
CEMEX is a global construction materials company that is building a better future through sustainable products and solutions. CEMEX is committed to achieving carbon neutrality through relentless innovation and industry-leading research and development. CEMEX is at the forefront of the circular economy in the construction value chain and is pioneering ways to increase the use of waste and residues as alternative raw materials and fuels in its operations with the use of new technologies. 
CEMEX offers cement, ready-mix concrete, aggregates, and urbanisation solutions in growing markets around the world, powered by a multinational workforce focused on providing a superior customer experience, enabled by digital technologies.
For more information please visit: www.cemex.com