Hauling aggregates for overnight motorway project

Client background

Tarmac, a CRH company, is the UK’s leading sustainable building materials and construction solutions business. Their innovative services and solutions help to deliver the infrastructure needed to grow the economy today and create a more sustainable built environment to support future prosperity. They lead in the supply of construction material comprising aggregates, asphalt, cement, lime, concrete, road contracting, building products and recycling services.

The requirement

Tarmac were undertaking a project to resurface a section of the M27 motorway at J12, near Portsmouth. The section of road was part of the current hard shoulder, which will soon become a new lane as part of the new Smart Motorway project that is currently under construction.

Tarmac needed the existing road surface to be removed and for new surfacing to be laid. This would involve laying a base course, followed by the top layer of asphalt. All of this needed to be carried out overnight when the road could be easily closed with minimal disruption.

The solution

TJ Transport was one of several haulage companies employed to help assist in transporting the required aggregate materials to the work site. Two TJ tipper lorries were instructed to collect loads of the base course material from a quarry in Halcombe, Somerset. This was then transported back to the M27 J12, where the materials were deposited.

Any challenges?

When transporting this type of aggregate, which is a warm material when loaded into the truck, it can be hard to extract when the time comes to deposit it at its final destination. To combat this, TJ sprays the inside of the tipper trucks with a liquid solution called T99 to ensure it can be easily and quickly unloaded.

The outcome

TJ’s part in the project went well and was completed in good time. Each TJ lorry was given a time slot to arrive at the quarry to collect the materials, ensuring that the collections and deliveries were staggered in order to avoid long delays. TJ successfully adhered to their designated time slots, which helped contribute to the smooth running of the night’s events.