Rochdale Borough Council

Product
Tufflex HD+

Volume
1,000 tonnes

Client
Rochdale Borough Council

Overview
A road junction servicing one of the busiest industrial estates in Europe has been resurfaced using Hanson’s Tufflex HD+ to prolong its lifespan and offer a more sustainable solution.

Project description

Hanson has supplied a heavy-duty asphalt mix to improve the lifespan of a busy road junction in Rochdale, Greater Manchester.

On one side of the junction is the entrance to a 200-acre distribution park, while on the other is a quarry. And there are major interchanges with the M62 and M66 less than half a mile away. As a result, it is very heavily trafficked, particularly by heavy goods vehicles (HGVs).

The road was resurfaced in traditional hot rolled asphalt more than 12 years ago but was subject to regular maintenance issues within two years. In 2016, after nearly a decade of remediation, Rochdale Borough Council decided to look for a more sustainable, long-term solution that would ensure it could withstand heavy trafficking without the need for constant maintenance.

That solution involved planing off the existing surface and replacing it with a geotextile layer and new binder and surface course layers incorporating Hanson’s Tufflex HD+ heavy duty asphalt mix.

Tufflex HD+ contains Endura Z2, a premium polymer modified hot mix binder made by Nynas for heavy duty applications. It significantly enhances the toughness, rutting resistance and flexibility of the mix and provides good protection against damage caused by heavy, slow moving traffic.

Hanson recommended Tufflex HD+ 20mm for the binder course and Tufflex HD+ 14mm for the surface course. A total of 1,000 tonnes was supplied from the company’s Leeds asphalt plant.

To date, the material is performing well: two years on and there have been no maintenance issues regarding the condition of the surface.