Sustainable Concrete Stars at Silvertown Tunnel

Capital Concrete have worked with Keltbray Group, in supplying the construction engineering specialist’s piling operations for the Silvertown Tunnel, a landmark project in East London with a sustainable concrete.

The Silvertown Tunnel scheme (STT) will link North and South London from North Greenwich to the Royal Victoria Dock area. The project involves construction of a 1.4km long twin-bore road tunnel built under the River Thames, following a similar route to the Emirates Air Line cable car. As well as alleviating congestion in the Blackwall Tunnel, the scheme will encourage economic growth for East London and move traffic underground, helping to improve air quality.

Capital Concrete are supplying Keltbray with innovative concrete mixes that replace cement with low-carbon alternatives. Included in the supplied mixes is Earth Friendly Concrete (EFC®): a zero cement, geopolymer material designed by Australian materials firm Wagners, exclusively licensed for supply by Capital Concrete in London. Typically offering between a 75% and 87% saving in embodied Carbon compared with standard mixes, EFC’s performance is at least equal – if not greater, especially in maritime settings – to more traditional concrete.

Sustainable concrete solutions such as EFC support the project’s environmental focus, with the use of low-carbon mixes and geopolymer concrete alternatives aligning with the UK government’s decarbonisation commitments.

Jack Sindhu, Technical Manager for Capital Concrete, commented: “The use of low-carbon concrete mixes is a forward-thinking approach that delivers our client’s environmental obligations. Importantly, high-quality performance is not compromised in our low-carbon mixes either, and given the need to achieve strength compliance at 56 days, it enabled optimised mix designs to be created with lower embodied carbon content and a heightened structural integrity.”

The concrete is being supplied to Keltbray via Capital Concrete’s high-output, wet-batch concrete plant located at Silvertown next to Peruvian Wharf. The new, 300m3/hr concrete plant is well positioned to supply the nearby Silvertown Tunnel site, and its proximity reduces the carbon footprint of transportation. Sitting right by the Thames, the new plant also receives its aggregates by boat and barge, further reducing the project’s overall traffic and carbon emissions.

Capital Concrete’s Managing Director, Luke Smith, said: “We are delighted to be teaming up with Keltbray and Wagners again, supplying bespoke concrete products that are setting the standard for accountable construction. Our mutual interest in environmentally friendly concrete solutions has only grown stronger whilst working on this project to create a more connected London.”

Click here to download our EFC Brochure.

For more information regarding Earth Friendly Concrete supply, please call our Capital Concrete team on 020 3974 0520.