Council test new 'longer lasting' road surface in Middle Barton

The council’s highways team and its contractor, Milestone Infrastructure, are carrying out the trial of Gipave on a 725-metre stretch of North Street in Middle Barton.

The trial in Middle Barton is the third in Oxfordshire, and sees an adjacent length of road resurfaced using conventional asphalt so that the two surfaces can be compared.

Gipave is a “graphene-plus-enhanced” asphalt that was developed by the Italian company Iterchimica for use in road construction. It uses waste plastics that aren't typically recycled.

Cllr Andrew Gant, Oxfordshire County Council’s cabinet member for highway management, said: "We know how important the quality of our roads is to our residents. That is why we’re delighted to be involved in this latest trial to see how we can make our residents’ money go further and make our road surfaces stay in good condition for longer.

"Innovation is at the heart of what our highway teams do, as we have shown with previous Gipave trials and our recent event in Steventon, where Milestone tested seven different pothole repair methods on the same road.

"Increasing the lifespan of road surfaces will reduce the need for resurfacing work, ease the burden on highways budgets, and cut carbon emissions for the life cycle of a stretch of road."

The creators of Gipave say that it can be entirely recycled and increases the lifespan of asphalt pavement by approximately 165 percent compared to conventional methods.

The trial in Middle Barton started on July 17 and is a four-week, £450,000 project that includes kerb and drainage repairs.