Skip to main content

Eurovia’s big investment for PMBs in the UK

Eurovia UK, part of the Eurovia SAS and ultimately VINCI SAS, has invested £7 million in a new polymer modified bitumen and emulsion plant in Thurrock, by the River Thames in South-east England. Having drawn on technology and experience from other plants around Europe and in the US, Eurovia claims that the plant is the group’s most advanced yet. “It is very automated, there will be a very small team required to operate the plant,” said Paul Kimber, divisional manager – PolyBitumens, Eurovia UK. PolyBitumen
May 15, 2019 Read time: 2 mins
3281 Eurovia UK, part of the Eurovia SAS and ultimately VINCI SAS, has invested £7 million in a new polymer modified bitumen and emulsion plant in Thurrock, by the River Thames in South-east England. Having drawn on technology and experience from other plants around Europe and in the US, Eurovia claims that the plant is the group’s most advanced yet.


“It is very automated, there will be a very small team required to operate the plant,” said Paul Kimber, divisional manager – PolyBitumens, Eurovia UK. PolyBitumens is the name of the manufacturing facility. “The safety and quality systems are the best in the industry.”

The UK Member of Parliament for Thurrock, Jackie Doyle-Price, officially opened PolyBitumens, which is Eurovia UK’s biggest ever capital investment - in March this year. The plant was constructed during 2018.

PolyBitumens will serve road schemes in southern England, the Home Counties and Greater London. Currently, polymer modified bitumen and emulsion come from plants in the North-west of England. According to Eurovia, the new plant will save 470,000 vehicle miles each year.

The planning application for the plant stated there would be 35 lorry movements in and then out again during the peak season from May to early September. This would drop to just two in, two out in the coldest months.

Through its Ringway business, Eurovia UK is involved in multiple highway maintenance and PFI contracts around the UK. Also part of the group is Eurovia Infrastructure, a road contracting, specialist surfacing contracting and asphalt production business.

“The idea behind the whole PolyBitumens plant is to allow us to manufacture our own emulsions and polymer modified bitumens that will support our own roadstone business and also our specialist treatment business,” said Paul Goosey, managing director – Eurovia Production.

For more information on companies in this article

Related Content

  • Without political intervention, new technologies for using waste rubber in roads will not take off
    November 14, 2017
    New technologies to make rubber modification of asphalt are under development and testing. But political will is the real key to diverting old tyres from landfill - Kristina Smith reports. A new way to introduce end-of-life tyre rubber into asphalt mixes could be the key to diverting more tyres away from landfill, according to Dr Davide Lo Presti, principal research fellow at the Nottingham Transportation Engineering Centre (NTEC) at the University of Nottingham.
  • 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.

  • Breedon posts £200mn-plus revenue rise in 2018
    March 6, 2019
    Breedon, a leading UK and Ireland construction materials group, saw its year-on-year revenue rise by more than £200 million in 2018. Newly published audited figures for the year showed group revenue rose 32% to £862.7 million, compared to £652.4mn in 2017. Breedon’s profit before tax also rose by a healthy 12% to £79.9 million, up from £71.2mn in 2017. Group net debt stood at £310.7mn as of 31 December 2018, up from £109.8mn at 2017 end. Breedon posted a sizeable increase in its aggreg
  • How bitumen technology solutions are solving paving problems around the world
    March 2, 2017
    This month we hear how additives can bring RAP back from the dead and fight the ravages of salt damage, how pellets reach parts that PMB can’t and how Shell and WeedsWest are expanding their respective businesses - Kristina Smith writes