Carbon reduction savings
Delivery of the SAS13 bridge replacement was an incredibly successful project from every perspective. Not just the timing, complexity and precision of the installation of the new bridge but other important aspects such as carbon reduction and value engineering.
Carbon baseline figures were calculated at the outset to enable measurement of carbon reduction at all stages of the project.
Solutions
High levels of innovation and value engineering were employed throughout, making full use of our wider Skanska expertise for design changes, material reuse and other optimisations.
A range of solutions were implemented with some of the greatest carbon savings coming from:
- reuse of waste material
- use of high cement replacement concrete mixes
- rationalising and amending designs.
In one area, for example, our ground engineering experts from Cementation Skanska recommended replacing steel sheet piles with a continuous piled wall. This avoided the need for railway possession - reducing cost and disruption to Network Rail and railway users, eliminated the noise of hammering in sheet piles and lowered embodied carbon.
Outcomes
Not only did the teams on this project make a highly complex bridge move look easy, they also saved over 7,000 tonnes of carbon.
The work done to achieve this level of carbon savings brought added benefits including reduced vehicle movements and costs savings totalling more than £2m.
|
Lifecycle stage carbon |
% carbon reduction against initial baseline (as built) |
Equates to (kg CO2e) |
|
Embodied carbon permanent works |
25% |
1,155,717 |
|
Embodied carbon temporary works |
64% |
4,483,890 |
|
Construction and installation |
79% |
1,540,038 |
|
Total carbon reduction |
7,179,645 |
|
With the largest carbon savings coming from the reuse of waste material (over 1,300 tonnes) and low carbon concrete mixes (nearly 1,000 tonnes) we can take the lessons learned forward to future projects.
