A449 Coldra–Usk rehabilitation

The UK's first overlay to a life-expired concrete pavement using a continuously reinforced concrete pavement (CRCP) has been successfully completed while maintaining traffic flows on the busy Midlands Link to South Wales. The 2-year Welsh Office (now The National Assembly for Wales) contract designed and administered by Burks Green for the major rehabilitation of 12·5 km of this two-lane dual trunk road has incorporated the first full-scale use of exposed aggregate, ‘whisper concrete’. The tyre–road interface noise levels have been reduced by between 2 and 6 dB(A) compared with the adjoining sections of carriageway, which were replaced using CRCP with conventional brushed concrete surface. SIAC Construction (UK) Ltd has undertaken the construction using the first two-layer slip from paving machine in the UK and the first produced by US plant manufacturers Gomaco. The contract has also seen the first successful use in the UK of a continuous-mix plant to produce pavement-quality concrete. The Aran mix plant...