As a Partner organisation to Highways UK, MPA Lime was at the NEC Birmingham in the second week of October for the highly successful two-day event, and there was plenty of engaged discussions with the many who came to see us on Stand L107 near the Local Authority Theatre.

The particular focus of discussions was on two key areas where lime delivers significant benefits for Highways: 

• Hydrated lime in asphalt 
• Lime for soil stabilisation 

Highlighting the need for specific durability measures in performance specification for highway asphalts, as noted in available TRL guidance from 2008, local authorities, asphalt manufacturers and National Highways representatives, took away the message that hydrated lime has been, is, and should be relied upon as a simple to include durability enhancer for asphalt.  We are looking forward to taking these discussions further and helping to ensure that the performance specification methodology is adapted to enable higher durability asphalts to be used and help improve the future performance of highways across the UK.

Enlightening attendees about the significant benefits of using existing on-site soil resources to provide engineered soil stabilisation solutions, provided further take away messages that will be being shared by those who came to the event and visited our stand. Communicating that the reduction in truck movements, the lower carbon emissions, lower costs and quicker build programmes were all available to benefit infrastructure and housing projects, shows lime in soil stabilisation to be a worthy of being a first-choice option that should not be overlooked.