Murphy delivers UK-first low-carbon concrete pour

Infrastructure company Murphy has successfully delivered a significant milestone by carrying out the first permanent works use of Ecocem ACT in the UK.

Working in partnership with Breedon and Ecocem Global, the team utilised the new, marketing beating, low carbon concrete for the capping beam cast for a contiguous pile wall at the Shipley Depot project site.

Once all the pile caps for the wall have been completed, the team expect to make a carbon saving of 145kgCO₂e per m³ against the benchmark CIII/A mix concrete mix.

That’s the same carbon footprint as the electricity for 20 UK homes in a year, or an average car travelling around the equator twice.

The use of Ecocem ACT for this permanent works activity, follows Murphy’s successful pour at Uxbridge Moor, at the time the largest single pour of  low-carbon ACT concrete in the UK.

Kyle Stott, Engineering Manager at Murphy, said; “This latest pour is both an example of innovation utilised for the good of the engineering industry, and a further demonstration of our commitment to creating a greener Murphy, becoming net positive by 2050.”

Once completed, the new depot at Shipley will become a key part of the wider Transpennine Route Upgrade (TRU), a major, multi-billion-pound programme of railway improvements which will bring better journeys to passengers travelling across the Pennines between Manchester, Huddersfield, Leeds and York.

Murphy is working as part of an alliance with Network Rail, VolkerRail, Siemens and SYSTRA, known as TRU East, on the York to Leeds section bringing in a programme of railway improvements that will bring faster, more reliable and greener journeys to passengers travelling across the Pennines and transforming the North for years to come.

You can find more information on the project, and the key milestones that have already been reached, on our case study page.