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University of Reading

Pepper Lane and Queen's Drive projects make use of sustainable materials

Tuesday, 10 May 2016

Sustainable campus projects

Last year, major construction works took place at both Pepper Lane and Queen’s Drive, following improvements to the Pepper Lane entrance and the new car park at Queen’s Drive. 

The original tender for the Pepper Lane roadworks included for excavation and disposal of the existing road base and the importing of new crushed stone material to form the base for the new road formation. However, at an early stage in the project it was recognised that construction of the new car park was due to commence shortly after the road works were due to be completed. This created an opportunity to re-use the sub-base material from the contractor’s car park as part of the new Pepper Lane perimeter road construction.  

The rolled stone from the car park, together with the old macadam surface of the Pepper Lane road were used to form the base layer of the new perimeter road. This saved approximately £50,000 on the road project and approximately £36,000 on the Queen’s Drive car park project, as it meant that a smaller amount of new stone filling would be needed for the construction of the new road.  

By using recycled material, we also significantly reduced the environmental impact of our construction activity- the reuse of material meant that approximately 300 lorry movements were avoided, with each lorry making a 60 mile round trip. The less stone to transport off site, the fewer miles our contractors would have to travel.   

Other sustainable initiatives for the car park include:

  • Permeable surfacing/drainage solution. This means: 

(i) Controlling the quantity and rate of run-off from the site by retaining the sub-base with a restricted discharge to Whiteknights Lake.

(ii) Improving the quality of the run-off, providing capture and treatment of hydrocarbons.

  • Provision of LED lighting to reduce environmental impact.
  • Investigating the provision of Electric Vehicle Charging Units

Click here to find out more on how the University conducts building works.