Swansea Council’s Highways Service is hoping to save £100k a year by reusing old road surface materials.
The Council and its partners in the Swansea Highway Partnerhship have invested in a special asphalt-busting machine which will recycle chunks of road and produce top quality asphalt which will be used in future highway resurfacing.
A purpose built recycling plant is in the process of being developed at Ferrybost Close and will house the specialist machine which has been shipped down from Leicester.
Carl Humphrey, Head of Streetscene in Swansea Council, said: “The creation of this new recycling facility will mean we can utilise material we have taken from the highway and re-use it in our highway maintenance work.
“Usually we would need to buy in these materials to repair or resurface roads but having this machinery means we can produce our own without the need to purchase extra materials.
“Hopefully this will provide us with a cost saving of at least £100,000 a year.”
The Council has recently produced its Highway Asset Management Programme which plans how and when roads in Swansea are improved during the next few years.
Mr Humphrey said: “The new recycling plant will help us deliver our longer-term highway improvement plans as well as providing us with a source of material for repairing potholes and other road defects.”
Roads across the country have suffered during the cold snap. Swansea Council has confirmed that, since the cold weather, over 1,500 potholes have been repaired.
The Swansea Highway Partnership is a four-year contract signed between Swansea Council, Alun Griffiths Contractors and Hanson Contracting.
