SCOTS is actively supporting the below programme through various activities including engaging the local authority network and participation in the Expert Advisory Panel.

Adept Live Labs 2- Decarbonising Local Roads

The construction, renewal, adaptation, and maintenance of the UK’s local roads and assets make a significant and ongoing contribution to our greenhouse gas emissions, climate change impacts and future resilience. Materials are at the heart of this work and our ability to shift the dial towards net-zero.

Despite rapid advancements in materials and manufacturing, efforts in the UK remain disparate and isolated.

In response, this Live-Lab presents two core elements:

1. A UK Centre of Excellence for materials decarbonisation in local roads, comprising standards, knowledge management, a cloud database, global network, and systematic measurement
2. A materials testing programme identifying and deploying the top global innovation on UK roads.

North Lanarkshire Council (NLC) has been allocated over £4.5million to create a UK Centre of Excellence for Materials Decarbonisation in Local Roads, in partnership with Transport for West Midlands (TfWM). This is the only Scottish-led bid of the Live Labs 2: Decarbonising Local Roads competition funded by the Department of Transport and organised by The Association of Directors of Environment, Economy, Planning & Transport (ADEPT).

The Centre of Excellence will be commissioned to deliver new innovations and solutions from across the national and international communities to the UK Local Authority Highway sector. For example, the centre will consider alternative materials which could be used for road surfacing, crash barriers, bridges, lighting columns and landscaping at the side of the road network. This will include how waste products, such as plastics, concrete, and other demolition materials, could be recycled and utilised A Centre of Excellence is needed to ensure innovation knowledge is shared, unnecessary duplication is avoided, and innovations are adopted into widescale business-as-usual.