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

  • Sophisticated asphalt plant from Ammann
    March 21, 2022
    A highly sophisticated asphalt mixing plant is in operation in southwestern Germany. The plant is now being operated by Makadamwerk Schwaben.
  • Highways England opts for warm mix asphalt
    August 26, 2021
    The company in charge of maintaining England’s strategic highways, including motorways and main roads, is officially shifting its preference towards using warm mix asphalt. Highways England lays out the case for its decision.*
  • New bitumen technologies and developments around the world
    May 16, 2016
    From expanding bitumen operations in India to groundbreaking mixes in Italy, stronger roads in South Africa to high RAP content in Germany, this month we bring you stories of advancing technology from around the world - Kristina Smith reports Technology from Austrian engineering company Pörner will soon be responsible for almost two-thirds of India’s bitumen production. In December last year Pörner signed the deal with HPCL-Mittal Energy, a joint venture of Hindustan Petroleum Corporation and Mittal Energy
  • Asphalt plant development is heading in different directions?
    June 14, 2017
    Developments in asphalt plant technology are seeing major gains in energy efficiency and the use of RAP but some manufacturers are moving in different directions - Mike Woof writes. Asphalt Drum Mixers is offering its EX120 asphalt plant as a solution for producers needing a portable counterflow plant that can process high percentages of RAP. The plant features single-drum counterflow technology and is said to be compact, with a capacity of 120tonnes/hour, while the firm says that the machine meets all fede