Nu-Phalt - Joint Winner -
Potholes! There are, quite literally, millions of potholes on Scottish and UK roads, causing damage to cars and delays for motorists. £1.8 billion is needed to repair Scotland's road network using traditional methods. In addition, Scottish Councils have paid out more than £2m in compensation over the past five years for claims connected with road defects.
Enter Nu-Phalt, a Rosyth based company with 25 years experience of designing and manufacturing heaters for domestic and commercial use. The company has developed a road repair system, which is cleaner, greener, faster, more effective and more cost effective than traditional road repairs. The innovation has brought the company recognition in the form of awards from Green Business Fife, Vibes and Haymarket, which described Nu-Phalt as a "glowing example of eco-innovation."
Seamless Road Repair
The Nu-Phalt road repair is based on infra-red technology which heats the road surface to temperatures of around 750O very efficiently; it takes only 8 minutes to heat the repair area. This allows the existing macadam to be re-used and reset to deliver a seamless repair.
The entire repair "package" can be managed by a single vehicle, thus reducing traffic disruption and the process itself is considerably faster which boosts productivity. It is possible to complete around 30 pothole repairs a day using a single vehicle.
The process recycles existing road materials and has a significantly smaller carbon footprint than conventional repairs and landfill material is virtually eliminated.
The system is also estimated to deliver financial savings to its customers of around 40%.
Carbon Footprint
The company has spent considerable time developing and assessing the product's performance. It is claimed that the traditional road repair system typically produces 51.6kg of CO2 per repair. In late 2007, Nu-Phalt published an independent carbon-footprint assessment of its process, which concluded that their system produces only 4.3kg of CO2 per repair. The traditional use of a "hot box" and laying and raking new, hot-rolled asphalt has been assessed by the Scottish Institute of Sustainable Technology (SISTech) at Heriot Watt University to produce nearly 25kg of CO2 per repair. The Nu-Phalt system eliminates the need for that completely because of its infra-red technology which reuses existing materials. In simple terms, a traditional road repair could be offset by planting 11 trees, a Nu-Phalt road repair could be offset by planting 1 tree.
Benefits
Although the environmental performance is impressive, the company has retained focus on other parts of the product offering, too. Financial savings are very competitive and there is no additional cost in choosing this solution. Nu-Phalt can work with customers to undertake the repairs directly or to lease the equipment for customers to manage a repair programme. As a result there is a solution for both public sector and private markets, like supermarkets and hotel chains. Nu-Phalt has run trials or worked with 11 of the 29 Scottish Local Authorities so far and is in discussions with many more.
Health and safety considerations have been at the forefront of the development process, which took over three years. The company has undergone certification by the BBA (British Board of Agreement - Technical Approvals for Construction) and GASTEC, which is critically important in engineering and manufacturing processes. As a result, the staff using the system are well trained and the products are well suited for the job. Since the Nu-Phalt system has done away with the jackhammer, there is no longer a concern about workers getting Vibration White Finger.
Taking the Innovation Around the World
The company's innovation and excellent customer service is being recognised throughout the UK and now the Nu-Phalt team has been to India, Hungary, South Africa and the Republic of Ireland to demonstrate their infra-red road repair. There has been some assistance from the Department of International Trade, but many of the international contacts have come via the internet. It seems that the problem of potholes and traffic disruption is truly international and Nu-Phalt aims to be leading the way in providing a professional and innovative solution!