National Highways and a major contractor have rowed back on bold claims about the impact that new construction techniques will have on carbon emissions for the Lower Thames Crossing (LTC).
Statements claiming significant cuts to carbon would be made on the £9bn project, in one case of 10-20%, were qualified after questioning to suggest potential savings based on ambitions and future innovations.
Speaking at New Civil Engineer’s Tunnelling Festival last month, the LTC’s project director for tunnels, Sinisa Galac, said that if the scheme did not achieve emissions reductions in line with the Government’s legally binding net zero strategy, ‘there won’t be a project’.
Citing various ways that the project to build a tunnel linking Kent and Essex would cut emissions, Mr Galac said: ‘10-20% will be slashed through carbon capture.’
When asked about this claim by the Thames Crossing Action Group (TCAG), which opposes the scheme, National Highways said that while carbon capture, utilisation and storage (CCUS) is not yet available, ‘there is potential that we could start using cement manufactured with CCUS towards the end of the construction period’.
A National Highways spokesperson confirmed to Highways that at the event, ‘we included some examples of the type of innovations we would like to see adopted in our supply chain and an indication of the scale of the impact they could have’.
Proposed Lower Thames Crossing A13 junction
Last February, National Highways announced that the LTC had been designated a ‘pathfinder’ project to explore carbon neutral construction and would be the first major UK infrastructure project to use procurement to lower construction carbon.
On Monday, National Highways announced that it had awarded Balfour Beatty a design and build contract worth around £1.2bn to deliver around 10 miles of new for the scheme, as well as 49 structures such as bridges and viaducts.
Announcing the deal, National Highways made no reference to having used the procurement process to lower construction carbon, other than to state that Balfour Beatty ‘share our commitment to driving carbon out of construction’.
Balfour Beatty said it ‘will utilise modular construction techniques to build the structures offsite in a controlled factory environment, significantly reducing carbon emissions by minimising the number of lorry movements and material deliveries to and from site’.
However, when asked to quantify the carbon saving this would achieve, a spokesperson said that during the 18-month detailed design and pre-construction planning phase, ‘we will explore techniques, including modular construction, that have the potential to reduce our environmental impact and support the project’s low carbon targets’.
TCAG chair Laura Blake said: 'Unless any of them can actually present evidence to back up their claims then we can only consider it yet more propaganda and greenwash, and further evidence that the proposed LTC should not go ahead.’
