A PIONEERING technique is being used in a major project to resurface a ten-mile stretch of the A1.

Highways England is embracing an environmentally-friendly way to reconstruct a stretch of the A1(M) northbound between Ripon and Leeming.

In total, around 100,000 tonnes of tarmac will be laid quicker with 60 per less waste going to landfill.

Usually, to resurface a road, the old road is planed off and taken away as waste.

The new material is normally delivered in 18 tonne truckloads with an average of 350 tonnes being brought in per shift - around 50 wagons coming and going everyday.

The new method, using a machine called a cold repaver, grinds up the existing road to be recycled, combining it with fresh bitumen and cement before laying it back down immediately on the road behind.

Highways England project manager Andrew Brown said: “There are lots of benefits to using this new way of working.

“It means we can reconstruct larger areas of road much quicker, there are fewer construction vehicle trips and the new road lasts much longer – up to 20 years before another major reconstruction is required.

“This was the first machine of its type in the UK, but it has already been used successfully in the USA, France and China. “This new technology was used for the first time in the North-East in 2016 when we resurfaced just over a mile stretch of the A1 at Brownieside.

“The lessons we learnt from that allowed us to refine our processes to provide even smoother journeys for motorists.”

Preparation work started on Monday and will last for around a month with various carriageway closures overnight between 8pm and 6am.

This is to install a contraflow for all traffic to travel on the southbound carriageway.

Resurfacing work will then get underway in July with the overall scheme is due to be completed by early autumn.

Diversions will be in place during the full overnight closures.