Tarmac Precast drives Cambridge Guided Busway
An innovative Guided Busway scheme is set to be built using custom-designed units from Tarmac Precast. The £116 million Cambridge Guided Busway system – one of the first in the UK - will operate along a disused railway line from the village of St Ives to Cambridge City centre, linking villages along the A14 corridor.
Five box culverts, as well as a number of bespoke concrete panels and barriers, are being specially designed and supplied by Tarmac Precast, the UK’s leading suppliers of precast concrete. The Guided Busway project - which started in July 2007 - will provide a high quality, reliable service along the A14 corridor and will help alleviate congestion by linking up with roads into Cambridge city centre.
The precast box culverts are being manufactured over a twelve-week period as part of an important new contract between Tarmac Precast and Edmund Nuttall Ltd, the leading civil engineering company appointed by Cambridgeshire County Council to deliver the scheme. As preferred supplier for Edmund Nuttall under the Vendor Accord scheme, the contract with Tarmac Precast is evidence of the long-standing, successful working relationship that the two companies share.
Stewart Wolfrey, senior buyer at Edmund Nuttall said: “ We are delighted to be using Tarmac Precast as preferred supplier of precast box culvert units for this project. We have found Tarmac to be a thoroughly professional organisation to work with, always
offering a proactive and best-value approach. On this particular contract they have been able to react to very short lead times and schedule the work into an already busy manufacturing programme.”
Kevin Bourne, account manager at Tarmac Precast added: “As preferred supplier for Edmund Nuttall, we are delighted to be working with them on this prestigious project. The Guided Busway scheme is one of the first of its kind in the UK, so many local authorities across the country will be looking to this project to assess its success and viability. The use of precast concrete as an offsite method for constructing things like pedestrian walkways demonstrates how it can offer significant benefits in terms of reduced costs and build time, as well as benefits for on-site health and safety. Precast structures have vast potential for use in similar future schemes.”
The first box culvert to be delivered on site will measure approximately three by 3.7 metres, and will be used to construct an underpass beneath the Busway route, so that the buses can to pass over whilst allowing pedestrians to safely cross using the underground walkway below. The precast box culverts will also be used to construct walkways and divert watercourses along the rest of the route.
The first bus services running on the Cambridge Guided Busway are expected by early 2009.
August 2007
