Tarmac deliver the right formula

WHAT do the M6 Toll and the brand new Bahrain Grand Prix circuit have in common? The answer is that a key component of both road surfaces came from Tarmac Western’s Bayston Hill Quarry near Shrewsbury.

Byston Hill is one of only a few Tarmac sites across the country to produce a highly skid-resistant gritstone that is as well suited to the high-performance demands of F1 circuits as it is on the UK’s motorways.

"Even so, both the specification process and the transporting of nearly 4,000 tonnes of the material from Shrewsbury to Bahrain proved to be quite a challenge, as Malcolm Thompson, Tarmac Western’s aggregate and asphalt director, explained: ‘In gaining the specifiers approval we had to show the circuit’s consulting engineer, Paul Holfman, that our gritstone had superior shape and minimal oversize and undersize content.’"

"Tarmac Western introduced a stringent quality-control procedure to ensure that only the highest-quality aggregate was selected for delivery by their sister company, Trupac, from their bagging plants at Sevenoaks and Cliffe in Kent. In a demanding time frame of only two weeks, the full order of 3,700 tonnes was bagged and palletized for shipment."

"In total, 190 container loads of gritstone were shipped out by Thamesport-based Interfreight just before Christmas 2003, arriving at Bahrain’s main port of Mina Sulman four weeks later. The material was successfully laid on the track by 5 March 2004."

"‘Once a routine was established, the whole process went like clockwork,’ said Mr Thompson. ‘It was a great example of many organizations working together efficiently and less than 1% of waste was generated throughout the operation.’"