The £30m ADEPT Live Labs 2 programme has published the shortlist of projects that are going through to the next ‘Dragons’ Den’ stage.
The three-year programme, with the strap line Decarbonising Local Roads in the UK, is funded by the Department for Transport (DfT) and is looking for schemes that address the long-term decarbonisation of highways infrastructure and assets across local roads.
The initial 30 bids submitted by local authority-led partnerships across the UK have now been whittled down to 10:
- Brighton and Hove City Council and Kent County Council (in partnership with the Department for Infrastructure, Northern Ireland)
- Cambridgeshire CC
- Devon CC
- East Riding of Yorkshire Council (in partnership with the Department for Infrastructure, Northern Ireland; Cambridgeshire CC; Derbyshire CC; Hull City Council; Lancashire CC; Oxfordshire CC; Westminster City Council and York City Council)
- Liverpool City Council (in partnership with Aberdeen City Council, Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea and Newcastle City Council)
- North Lanarkshire Council
- North Yorkshire CC
- South Gloucestershire Council and West Sussex CC
- Transport for West Midlands
- Wessex partnership (Somerset CC, Cornwall Council and Hampshire CC)
A range of approaches have been put forward by the schemes:
- creating a UK centre of excellence for materials and manufacturing in roads
- testing the performance of recycled materials in roads
- introducing an ‘ecosystem of things’ mapping approach
- creating a test bed of net zero corridors underpinned by the doughnut economics model
- creating a ‘national fleet impact strategic response’ to counter scenario-based risk from fleet vehicles
ADEPT said the panel of independent experts drawn from the highways and transportation sector will be looking for projects that raise the bar in terms of local highways authorities’ approach to delivering net zero local roads.
It will be evaluating innovation, a focused approach to carbon reduction, trials that can be successfully scaled up, and a rigorous approach to monitoring and evaluation.
Transport decarbonisation minister Jesse Norman said: ‘Innovation will be critical in our drive towards a cleaner transport system, and that’s why we’re funding projects such as those shortlisted today to help decarbonise the nation’s roads.’
ADEPT president Mark Kemp said: ‘We have been overwhelmed by the innovations and commitment to achieving net zero across local roads evidenced by all the applications to ADEPT’s Live Labs 2.
‘The final 10 are a truly exciting set of projects that each demonstrate the ambitions and scope of local authority leadership across the highways and transportation sector. I also want to thank DfT and our Commissioning Board partners for their support and expertise as we move to this next stage.’
The Dragons’ Den will be held on Friday (4 November), with the winners announced shortly after.
Successful proposals will move into a funded mobilisation stage (January to March 2023), to develop fully specified and costed programmes with procurement, legal and communications strategies.
For more information, visit www.adeptnet.org.uk/livelabs2.
