Heidelberg wins North Yorkshire asphalt framework

Heidelberg Materials UK has secured a 12-month framework with North Yorkshire Highways to supply approximately 35,000 tonnes of asphalt for road maintenance and improvement schemes across the county.

The agreement was awarded through competitive tender and has begun with resurfacing work on Pateley Bridge High Street. Asphalt for the scheme was produced at Heidelberg Materials’ Pateley Bridge plant using aggregate from the adjoining Coldstones Quarry, approximately three miles from the works.

Producing locally shortened the delivery route considerably compared with supply from the company’s Leeds plant, which is around 29 miles away. Reduced haulage supported the project’s carbon objectives while also limiting vehicle movements and providing tighter control over delivery times during restricted working hours.

The Pateley Bridge scheme presented several technical constraints. Historic cobbles remained beneath the road surface, the alignment includes a steep gradient, and the permitted planing depth was limited, leaving the project team to select materials capable of performing within a relatively shallow pavement construction.

A Tufflex stress-absorbing membrane interlayer was used within the binder course to help manage movement and reduce reflective cracking from the underlying structure. The surface course used Tufflex D with high-polished-stone-value aggregate to provide skid resistance on the gradient and under the traffic conditions expected through the town.

Heidelberg Materials also incorporated its CarbonLock biogenic asphalt technology. The binder contains biogenic material that has absorbed carbon dioxide during growth, with the stored carbon remaining locked within the pavement and retained when the asphalt is later recovered and recycled.

Because the asphalt plant sits within the Nidderdale National Landscape, the supplier worked with local authorities and residents to operate outside its normal hours. Night production allowed the highways team to complete the resurfacing with less disruption to daytime traffic and town-centre businesses.

The framework gives North Yorkshire Highways access to a defined local supply volume while allowing individual maintenance schemes to be planned around network condition, funding, and seasonal requirements. For the producer, the agreement provides a more predictable demand profile across the 12-month term.

Local asphalt supply has become increasingly important as highways clients seek to reduce transport emissions and improve resilience. Asphalt is delivered hot and must reach the paving operation within controlled time and temperature limits, making distance, congestion, weather, and plant availability central to programme and quality.

A nearby quarry and coating plant can reduce those variables, but local production alone does not guarantee lower whole-life impact. Mix design, durability, recycled content, fuel use, paving quality, and future maintenance frequency all influence the carbon and cost performance of the finished road.

CarbonLock forms part of a widening range of asphalt technologies intended to reduce embodied emissions. A recent station access project used carbon-negative asphalt at Golborne transport hub, reflecting growing client interest in products that combine recycled content, lower-temperature production, alternative binders, or biogenic carbon storage.

Claims around stored or avoided carbon will face increasing scrutiny as these materials move into larger frameworks. Clients need consistent product declarations, system boundaries, and accounting methods so competing mixes can be assessed on a comparable basis rather than through isolated headline figures.

Durability remains the decisive test for any lower-carbon pavement. A mix that reduces production emissions but requires earlier replacement can increase whole-life material use, traffic management, labour, and disruption. The Pateley Bridge specification therefore combines carbon reduction with high skid resistance and measures intended to control cracking over the existing substrate.

Maintaining roads over historic foundations is a common challenge for local authorities. Full reconstruction can provide a more uniform pavement but carries higher cost, longer closures, greater excavation, and increased waste, while shallow resurfacing relies on materials capable of tolerating movement and variable support.

Framework arrangements can help authorities standardise those technical decisions and gather performance data across several sites. Where suppliers, designers, and maintenance teams use consistent records, they can compare mix performance, defect development, carbon data, and treatment life rather than evaluating schemes independently.

Capacity across the asphalt network is another concern, particularly as major infrastructure and local maintenance programmes compete for aggregates, bitumen, transport, and paving crews. Securing regional supply through a framework provides some visibility, although volumes will still need to be coordinated around plant shutdowns, peak demand, and specialist aggregate availability.

The North Yorkshire agreement also illustrates how procurement is shifting from material price alone towards a combination of logistics, technical performance, environmental data, and service reliability. Suppliers increasingly need to support mix selection, production planning, documentation, and site delivery rather than simply quoting a rate per tonne.

With the first project completed under demanding physical and operational conditions, the framework now moves into its wider maintenance programme. Its performance will be judged through pavement life, consistency of supply, disruption, and verified carbon outcomes across the county’s varied urban and rural network.