Balfour Beatty Civil Engineering Ltd

Highways Services carbon reduction

Highways Services' Area 4 contract has upgraded lighting on the network to enhance safety of network users, as part of the Highways Agency Opportunity 'Quick Wins' Scheme. The upgrades improved the energy efficiency of the lanterns, which reduce the amount of electricity consumed by highways lighting. This reduction in electricity consumption decreased the carbon emissions from the network and resulted in cost savings.

By reducing the carbon footprint of highways Area 4 by almost 250 tonnes of CO2 each year from lantern upgrades on three routes, the scheme demonstrates the potential for relatively simple and quick-to-implement measures to reduce the network's carbon footprint.

Area 4 has designed three lighting upgrade schemes, which are on the A2, A20 and A2070.  The schemes include replacing the current 250w High Pressure Sodium lanterns, which have a GRP body, for a new 140w lantern with an aluminum body that has a longer life span. This is possible because the lighting columns are spaced at optimal distances for the new 140W lanterns. The new 140w lamps produce a whiter light than the current making the recognition of pedestrians or objects on the highways easier to see leading to safer roads and enhanced safety benefits for pedestrians and other road users.

The reduced energy consumption from the lighting upgrades reduces the carbon emission output from the highways network and results in cost savings.

Regarding carbon emissions, the predicted carbon savings per year for each scheme is:

• A2 Brenley Corner to Harbledown: 119.65 tonnes of C0₂

• A2070 from Junction 10 M20 to the Cloverleaf interchange: 72.71 tonnes of C0₂

• A20 Dover: 53.72 tonnes of C0₂

The total carbon emissions savings for all schemes was 246.08 tonnes of C02 and estimated annual cost savings of over £40,000.

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