Tarmac Invests in Low-Carbon Future with New Northumberland Asphalt Facility

Tarmac has officially opened a next-generation asphalt production plant in Northumberland, introducing a range of low-carbon technologies designed to improve sustainability and cut emissions across its operations in the North East.

Located at Barrasford, the new facility replaces the company’s previous asphalt plant on the same site and represents a major upgrade in efficiency, storage capacity and production capability.

According to Tarmac, the plant has been engineered to support more sustainable asphalt manufacturing through the greater use of recycled materials and cleaner fuel technologies.

Higher recycled content and lower emissions

One of the key features of the upgraded site is its ability to incorporate significantly higher levels of recycled asphalt planings (RAP) into production. The facility can now manufacture asphalt mixes containing up to 45% recycled material, helping reduce demand for virgin aggregates and lowering embodied carbon.

The plant has also been fitted with advanced burners capable of operating on dimethyl ether (DME), a cleaner alternative fuel that could further reduce CO2 emissions in future operations.

Enhanced efficiency measures throughout the facility are expected to deliver notable

environmental gains.

Tarmac said the new plant is approximately 55% more energy efficient than the previous installation, while exhaust-related carbon emissions have been cut by around 18%.

Expanded storage and operational improvements

The upgraded facility includes eight storage bins with a combined capacity of nearly 400 tonnes for warm mix and hot mix asphalt products. This effectively doubles the storage capability previously available at the site.

By increasing storage volumes, the plant can operate for longer continuous production runs without frequent shutdowns and restarts, improving energy efficiency and ensuring more reliable material availability for customers.

Quarry integration reduces transport impacts

The asphalt operation is directly linked to Tarmac’s adjacent Barrasford Quarry, allowing locally sourced aggregate to be transported to the plant via conveyor systems rather than road haulage.

This arrangement helps reduce Scope 3 transport emissions associated with moving raw materials while maximising the use of locally extracted resources. The quarry currently holds permission to extract up to 20 million tonnes of aggregate.

Supporting low-carbon asphalt products

Tarmac regional operations director John Riley said the investment reflects the company’s wider sustainability ambitions and its focus on helping customers reduce carbon across construction supply chains.

He noted that the cradle-to-gate carbon footprint for the site’s warm and hot mix AC20 binder course products is now more than 4% lower than equivalent products produced at the previous plant five years ago.

Riley added that the enhanced facility will support a broader range of lower-carbon asphalt solutions, including products using recycled materials, bio-based binders and warm mix technology under the company’s CEVO asphalt range.

Long-term investment in the region

Tarmac senior operations manager Kieran Adam described the new facility as an important long-term investment for both the business and the local community.

He said Barrasford Quarry and the original asphalt plant have supported employment in the area for more than four decades, with multiple generations of local families having worked at the site.