Balfour Beatty Civil Engineering Ltd

Top CEEQUAL score for M25

01 February 2011

M25 Junction 16 - 23 Widening Scheme has achieved a CEEQUAL 'Excellent' rating, with a final score of 87%, the highest ever award for a highways project under the Civil Engineering Environmental Quality Assessment and Awards Scheme.

This adds to the 3 Interim Awards already received by the M25 project during Summer 2010. The M25 Junction 16-23 Widening Scheme was awarded a score of 75.7% at the Interim stage, which includes the client and design stages of the assessment. Since then the score has been boosted by the construction works, which are being implemented to the highest environmental standards.

The project scored particularly well for waste management and material use. The materials strategy has maximised the use of recycled aggregates with over 400,000 tonnes of imported construction and demolition waste processed on site for use in the permanent works, resulting in 92% recycled content for bulk materials. All quarried aggregates have been responsibly sourced under BES 6001 standard. Quantities of waste produced by the scheme are extremely low, with 1.16 tonnes per £100k turnover, compared with the UKCG 2011 target of 8.10 tonnes per £100k turnover. Designing out waste and efficient site working practices have been the main factors in achieving this low figure in the journey to Zero Waste.

Responsible procurement of materials has also contributed to the high score. Sheet piles for the scheme are imported from Luxembourg, effectively a 'local' supplier as alternative suppliers are located in the Far East. The steel for the sheet piles is manufactured from 100% scrap steel using a highly efficient electric arc furnace. Overall this contributes to a 75% reduction in embodied carbon and saving of 15,000 tonnes CO2.

Water quality will also be improved as a result of the scheme with the construction of attenuation originally proposed for the scheme. The new drainage ponds will provide an improved level of treatment for highway runoff; will be far easier to access and maintain during operation and provide improved biodiversity and visual amenity.

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