Kier Highways has unveiled a new rapid setting material which reduces both project time and costs.

The new product has been utilised on a seven-week repair scheme along the M6 and has resulted in £35 million being saved for the UK, with lane closures shortened by 35 days.

Kier said that by using the material, it was able to implement a different traffic management model and prevent a lane closure, keeping three narrow lanes on the M6 open, Monday to Friday throughout the project.

On average, the lane closure would have added a further 45-minute delay to motorists from Monday to Thursday, increasing to 55 minutes on a Friday, and having a £35m impact on the country's GDP.

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The rapid setting material reaches design strength in 18 hours, instead of the traditional three-day duration.

Dave Wright, Executive Director, Kier Highways, said: "The use of this new material is testament to having a collaborative client in Highways England, and offers tremendous scope for reducing disruption nationwide.

"Having extensively trialled the product, we were trusted to use this new method and it has yielded excellent results, both in the efficiencies and savings, and in the quality of the solution."

Highways England Project Manager, Jessica Kenny, said: "The material cures quicker and gains density as it dries meaning that repair crews can work faster to carry out repairs without having to wait as long for it to dry.

"Safety is always our number one priority and these repairs were vital in helping us to protect this busy stretch of road for years to come."

Overall, 38 repair specialists worked more than 9,000 hours overnight and weekends to repair damaged concrete and waterproofing material underneath the road. In addition, 130 metres of expansion joints were also installed to provide additional strength and flexibility to the carriageway.

(LM/JP)