ADEPT’s Live Labs 2 programme has spent the last three years tackling one of highways’ biggest challenges: how do you decarbonise roads, street lighting and maintenance without increasing risk, blowing budgets or frightening local authorities away from innovation?
That’s the subject of this week’s Highways Voices podcast, where ADEPT’s Giles Perkins gives an unusually candid insight into how the sector is trying to move from climate ambition to practical delivery.
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The conversation goes well beyond the standard “net zero” conversation. Mr Perkins explains that while the industry has focused heavily on reducing tailpipe emissions, Live Labs 2 is looking at “everything else” - the carbon generated by the infrastructure itself, from pothole repairs and asphalt production to verge maintenance, lighting and procurement processes.
One of the most insightful parts of the discussion centres on risk. Mr Perkins describes how many local authorities are reluctant to be first movers because of fears around liability, standards and unintended consequences. Host Paul Hutton recalls conversations around East Riding of Yorkshire’s street lighting trials where officers worried that removing lighting, even with alternative safety measures in place, could expose them to criticism or even coroners’ investigations after collisions.
The podcast explores how Live Labs 2 is trying to “de-risk” innovation by generating evidence authorities can trust. Projects discussed include low-carbon asphalt trials, carbon-negative road upgrades in Devon, Liverpool’s work on procurement reform, and experiments turning highways grass cuttings into biofuels.
We also learn why the programme’s newly funded fourth year is perhaps the most important phase yet. Rather than building more demonstrators, the focus is now on dissemination: helping councils, contractors and suppliers understand what has worked and how it can be scaled nationwide. For example, applying some of the East Riding street lighting principles nationally could save around 100,000 tonnes of carbon and cut £1 billion from public spending.
For anyone working in highways, local government, infrastructure innovation or transport policy, this episode provides a rare opportunity to hear how the sector is attempting to turn sustainability from isolated pilots into “business as usual”. It is also a revealing look at the cultural, procurement and behavioural barriers that still stand in the way of faster change.
Highways Voices is brought to you with our podcast partners the Transport Technology Forum, LCRIG, ITS UK and ADEPT.
