Skip to main content

Conway's state-of-the-art plant

In the UK, highways maintenance specialist FM Conway, which places great importance on its green credentials, says that as part of this strategy it is to open what it thinks is the UK's most modern asphalt and recycling plant.
February 6, 2012 Read time: 2 mins
Highways maintenance specialist FM Conway awarded the contract to supply and erect its new asphalt and recycling plant to the UK arm of Benninghoven
In the UK, highways maintenance specialist FM 2329 Conway, which places great importance on its green credentials, says that as part of this strategy it is to open what it thinks is the UK's most modern asphalt and recycling plant.

Work on the £10 million (E11.8 million) facility in Erith, County Kent, south-east England, is scheduled for completion this summer.

The site, a former home to an engineering company, was acquired for £2.6 million (E3 million)) from construction materials group CEMEX, and was chosen for its position on the bank of the River Thames, allowing Conway to eventually look at taking ship-borne aggregates, further reducing its carbon footprint by giving it the opportunity to take more vehicles off the road. Conway awarded the contract to supply and erect the plant to the UK arm of 167 Benninghoven. The design and build project, which includes a purpose-built two-storey office block for production and sales personnel, is the biggest project of its kind undertaken by Benninghoven in the UK.

Once complete, the computer-controlled plant will use cutting-edge recycling technology, and will be run by a team of around 30, 25 of whom will be specially recruited.

The complex has the capacity for 24,000tonnes of aggregate, which will be kept dry, ready for coated stone production, in an existing eight-bay aggregates storage system. Recycled road planings from Conway's operations, and bitumen from outside suppliers, will also be used in the asphalt production process, to manufacture products using high percentages of recycled materials.

The storage capability will add significantly to the flexibility and efficiency of FM Conway's other divisions, such as surfacing, civils and term maintenance, giving it the potential for significant growth as a company.

"We are confident that in opening the new asphalt plant, we are presenting a world-class facility and are helping to raise the benchmark when it comes to the highways sector," said Michael Conway, managing director of highways maintenance at FM Conway.

For more information on companies in this article

Related Content

  • Optimising Specialist Bitumen Handling with the MEST Bitutainer™
    June 1, 2025

    As roads become more advanced and surface performance expectations rise, traditional hot bitumen is no longer the only material in demand. Across the globe, highways projects are increasingly relying on high-performance binders, from polymer-modified bitumen (PMBs) to specialist emulsions and tack coats designed for specific temperature conditions or traffic volumes.

  • UK asphalt market: 'turning lower'
    February 29, 2012
    The UK asphalt market increased by over 5% in 2010 but the market has already started to turn lower, claims industry experts BDS Marketing Research, which is forecasting volumes to be around 1% lower in the current year
  • Greener transport infrastructure
    February 16, 2024
    Crossing the carbon challenge: Pioneering carbon reduction on the UK’s ‘greenest’ major infrastructure project Paul Taylor – AtkinsRéalis Carbon Manager, Lower Thames Crossing Roads North
  • More tenders for the Lower Thames Crossing
    April 2, 2021
    The winners will build 23km of road connecting to what will be the UK’s longest road tunnel.