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WQ.235/2020
WRITTEN QUESTION TO THE MINISTER FOR INFRASTRUCTURE BY DEPUTY K.F. MOREL OF ST. LAWRENCE
ANSWER TO BE TABLED ON TUESDAY 30th JUNE 2020
Question
Will the Minister advise whether any U.K. companies have been used to lay road surfaces in Jersey since 1st January 2017; and if so, will the Minister provide a list of the projects on which they were engaged, the value of the contracts and the reasons why non-Jersey companies were used?
Answer
A UK based company has been employed to lay a product called "Gripfibre" on certain Government of Jersey roads since 1st January 2017. Gripfibre is a specialist road surfacing product generically referred to as micro-asphalt.
Micro asphalts are applied to existing road surfaces which are "tired" and have a polished and slippery surface, joints caused by service interventions which can let damaging water into the structure, but which have a residual strength and life. Micro-asphalt extends the life of such road surfaces in a cost-effective way by sealing the road surface from the ingress of water, adding a thin layer of asphalt to slow the oxidation of the existing asphalt layers and return the skid resistance of the road to an as new condition.
Extending the life of existing road structures with residual strength is not only a cost-effective technique, but also more environmentally sustainable than the alternative of removing and dumping the existing asphalt at the La Collette landfill, and replacing it with freshly quarried aggregate.
The laying of Micro-asphalt surfacing is also a fast process, and this can be advantageous by reducing the time that roadworks impact on and disrupt the public.
There are currently no local suppliers of Gripfibre micro-asphalt or an accredited equivalent on Jersey, this is a nationally accredited process (British Board of Agrement) requiring specialist skills and plant. Suppliers of this type of specialist product typically work nationally, rather than within local areas.
The projects where micro asphalt has been used since 2017, with costs, are:
Year | Roads to which Gripfibre was applied | Value of the contract |
2019 | Rue des Sapin La Route des Hetres La Route de Trodez La Route de Millais | £460,000 |
2018 | St Peters Valley Le Mont de la Pulente La Rue de Sergente La Rue de Bel Air and Eden Lane | £530,000 |
2017 | La Route d'Ebenezer La Rue de la Petite Falaise. | £220,000 |
Note: Included in the sums paid for the micro-asphalt are monies paid to local subcontractors employed by the UK Contractor for certain operations required as part of the work, such as white line removal, ironwork adjustments, road sweeping, white lining replacement and traffic management. Local asphalt laying companies are also used in advance of the micro asphalt works to correct any defects in the road surface that the micro-asphalt cannot correct.
Typically £4.5 to £6.5 million is spent on planned highway maintenance per annum.