Roads consultant Jon Munslow has been made chair of a new UK Roads Leadership Group (UKRLG) climate adaptation sub-board.
Highways understands the board has not been launched yet, although Mr Munslow, who is a past President of the Local Government Technical Advisors Group, has been asked to lead it.
His first task is to identify appropriate senior local government officers to join it and support its work.
The sub-board will work closely with the Department for Transport (DfT) and sit under the UKRLG Adaptation, Biodiversity and Climate Board (ABC Board), working on the adaptation implications of the ABC Board's work across all four UK nations and the wider response to climate change.
Mr Munslow announced his new position as he spoke to the Road Safety Markings Association (RSMA) conference this month, where he encouraged the sector to go faster and further in its push for decarbonisation.
He told delegates there was a decade-long challenge to make marking materials more durable and drive out the carbon from their manufacture; as well as increase the use of cold lay materials to take carbon out of applications, and adopt circular economies and work with other industries to make use of their byproducts.
He added that many of the key technologies and processes needed for his challenge were available and in use but it would take industry-wide collaboration to scale them up.
'Is the change happening quick enough? To be honest, I don’t think the whole highways sector is changing quickly enough,' he said.
'We need to drive out the carbon in the [marking] materials themselves. Many markings use thermoplastics or paints derived from petroleum, which has a high carbon footprint due to extraction, production and transportation.
'We need to seek out low-carbon alternatives. Can we use plant-based resins and natural colour pigments? Can we use agricultural byproducts? I have seen articles on using soya bean oil or corn starch to create bio-resins that replace some of the petroleum-based materials. Can we use waste products from other industries to create geopolymers and composites?
'We need to look at energy-intensive manufacturing and production processes, which often use a lot of heat. How can we drive that out? Short lifespans also mean frequent maintenance of road markings and add to waste and emissions.
'We also need to consider toxicity – traditional materials release volatile organic compounds during application and degradation. That harms the environment and human health. These are things there we need to reduce by advancing tech and bringing forward innovation.'
On the wider issue of adaptation to future needs, Mr Munslow also highlighted 'reflectivity and sitting alongside it luminescence, which will be particularly important if we start to remove streetlights to reduce carbon and energy costs for local highway authorities'.
Outlining a 'strategic view' for the RSMA, Mr Munslow noted that there were seven key functions to road markings:
- traffic regulations
- safety
- lane discipline
- parking control
- speed and hazard awareness
- critical information
- visibility at night or bad weather.
