A road bridge in the Tweed Shire is being upgraded using our Earth Friendly Concrete® (EFC), which is our ultra-low carbon concrete. The use of which saved over 12 tonnes of embodied carbon, which is the equivalent to the greenhouse gas emissions produced by driving a car over 47,600 km. Around 48m3 of our EFC® was used for the pre-stressed precast bridge girders to replace a timber road bridge that has deteriorated. The bridge being replaced is Purlos bridge, located in Upper Burringbar, NSW, and is scheduled to be completed by the end of October 2022.
The bridge is 14.84 metres in length, and it was designed to be a low maintenance asset. We ensured that the precast components were fabricated in a short period of time to make sure the precast elements could be installed without delay and that the project ran smoothly.
Our ultra-low carbon concrete was selected for the pre-stressed precast bridge girders for its structural performance and because it reduced the embodied carbon by around 70%. It also offers the additional advantages of improved durability, lower shrinkage, earlier strength gain, higher flexural tensile strength, and increased fire resistance.
We precast the bridge girders at our Wacol facility, with the elements being completed on time and to a high standard of quality, a real credit to all those involved.
Earth Friendly Concrete® by Wagners is geopolymer concrete and is much more sustainable than ordinary concrete. It is made from a binder consisting of industrial waste products, ground granulated blast furnace slag, and pulverised fly ash and contains no cement. The absence of cement has a huge positive impact as the built environment is a major contributor to global carbon emissions, with cement responsible for an estimated eight percent of annual global emissions.
Tweed Shire Council, Construction Engineer, Cameron Maxwell said, “We believe sustainability is very important, that by protecting the environment and our natural resources we are improving the quality of our lives. That is why we used Earth Friendly Concrete® by Wagners for girders to replace a timber bridge that had reached its end of life. Earth Friendly Concrete® is an exciting product as it does not sacrifice strength or durability while being substantially better for the environment than ordinary General-Purpose Concrete.”
Wagners EFC® Chief Commercial Officer, Jason Zafiriadis stated, "We make ultra-low carbon concrete that can help drive decarbonization. Earth Friendly Concrete® by Wagners has true environmental benefits and helps lower the carbon footprint in the construction industry. It's exciting to see our technically superior product used for precast bridge girders, providing sustainable choices for our clients. It is just another excellent illustration of how our EFC® technology may be used to create a more sustainable future."
If you would like to discuss incorporating Earth Friendly Concrete® into your next bridge project, please contact Wagners EFC BDM, Sam Kelly on sam.kelly@wagner.com.au or 0428 611 349.
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