Embodied carbon in road building

Bedford Borough Council did not have the information requested.

Dear Bedford Borough Council,

Please let me have a copy of carbon emission data associated with the whole life cycle of materials, energy use and construction of the following roads:
1. Bedford Western Bypass Dualling

This is sometimes referred to as “embodied carbon”.
For the avoidance of doubt this is not a request for carbon emissions data directly related to the use of the road by all kinds of vehicles over the 60 year assessment period.

Please let me know if these assessments of carbon were carried out following guidance contained in PAS2080 Carbon Management in Infrastructure and which organisation or consultancy /consultancies carried out the assessment.
https://www.carbontrust.com/what-we-do/a...

Thank you for your help.

Yours faithfully,

Kris Welch

Freedom of Information, Bedford Borough Council

Thank you for your e-mail requesting information under the Freedom of
Information Act 2000 / Environmental Information Regulations 2004.

 

We will proceed with the request which we received today. It is our
intention to have the information delivered to you as soon as possible
otherwise within the statutory 20 working days.

 

In considering the request, it may be subject to exemptions that the
Council rely on to refuse the information. Some exemptions are absolute
and some only apply where the public interest in maintaining the exemption
outweighs that of disclosing the information.
[1]https://www.bedford.gov.uk/council-and-d...

 

Please note that should you be requesting information under the
Environmental Information Regulations although we provide free access to a
wide range of information through our website, access to any public
registers which we hold and for inspecting information at our offices, we
are allowed to charge you a reasonable fee for providing certain
information.
If applicable, we will issue you with a fee notice. This will detail the
tasks involved in responding to the request, and associated costs. Further
information is available on the EIR page of Bedford Borough Council’s
website at the following link:

[2]https://www.bedford.gov.uk/council-and-d...

  

Any future correspondence you may have with the Council in relation to
this matter should be emailed to [3][Bedford Borough Council request email]

 

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References

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1. https://www.bedford.gov.uk/council-and-d...
2. https://www.bedford.gov.uk/council-and-d...
3. mailto:[Bedford Borough Council request email]

Dear Bedford Borough Council,

I understand the additional difficulties the council is experiencing, but would appreciate an indication of when the council expects to respond to this overdue request.

Yours faithfully,

K Welch

Freedom of Information, Bedford Borough Council

Thank you for your e-mail requesting information under the Freedom of
Information Act 2000 / Environmental Information Regulations 2004.

 

We will proceed with the request which we received today. It is our
intention to have the information delivered to you as soon as possible
otherwise within the statutory 20 working days.

 

In considering the request, it may be subject to exemptions that the
Council rely on to refuse the information. Some exemptions are absolute
and some only apply where the public interest in maintaining the exemption
outweighs that of disclosing the information.
[1]https://www.bedford.gov.uk/council-and-d...

 

Please note that should you be requesting information under the
Environmental Information Regulations although we provide free access to a
wide range of information through our website, access to any public
registers which we hold and for inspecting information at our offices, we
are allowed to charge you a reasonable fee for providing certain
information.
If applicable, we will issue you with a fee notice. This will detail the
tasks involved in responding to the request, and associated costs. Further
information is available on the EIR page of Bedford Borough Council’s
website at the following link:

[2]https://www.bedford.gov.uk/council-and-d...

  

Any future correspondence you may have with the Council in relation to
this matter should be emailed to [3][Bedford Borough Council request email]

 

Any emails containing personal or sensitive data will be sent as ‘secure
e-mails’. In order for you to access a secure email you will be asked to
create an account and log into the Council’s secure e-mail reply
service. If you do receive a secure email there will be instructions
explaining how to do this.

 

References

Visible links
1. https://www.bedford.gov.uk/council-and-d...
2. https://www.bedford.gov.uk/council-and-d...
3. mailto:[Bedford Borough Council request email]

Freedom of Information, Bedford Borough Council

Bedford BC - OFFICIAL-Unsecure

Good afternoon,

Thank you for your email. This has been passed on to the department responsible for providing you with this information and should be in contact with you soon on an update or with your response.

Kind regards
Freedom of Information
Bedford Borough Council

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Andrea Bechtle, Bedford Borough Council

Bedford BC - OFFICIAL-Unsecure

 

Dear Kris Welch

 

Request pursuant to Environmental Information Regulations Act 2004 –
Request No.16851

 

Thank you for your request for information which we received on 15^th
December 2020. Your request has been considered under the Environmental
Information Regulations 2004.

 

Please see your request and our response below:

 

The Bedford Western Duelling project is still very much at the concept /
feasibility stage and the assessment you reference will be undertaken at
the appropriate point in the project development. This is potentially when
we were to reach detailed design where an accurate measure of required
quantities of materials can take place on the production of a three
dimensional and both above ground and subterranean design of the areas of
the bypass to be duelled. This exercise is not planned to take place for
at least another 12-18 months based on the current project programme.

 

The original construction of the bypass, which whilst predating the
assessment you reference was forward thinking in attempt to mitigate the
carbon produced through the construction of the project. Breheny Civil
Engineering set a project goal for the Bedford Western Bypass that no bulk
materials be taken from site. The design of the bypass included 128,000m3
of bulk earthworks cut and fill which included 22,000m3 of
archaeologically excavated material that had been identified as unsuitable
for engineered fill.

 

The largest of the attenuation ponds required by the bypass was yielding
class 1A material so a methodology was developed to borrow additional
material within the lateral footprint of the pond and replace with the
archaeological material. Without this exercise the unsuitable materials
would have been required to be taken to tip and new material imported.

 

This proactive solution to dealing with the earthworks on the project
offered a sustainable solution which dramatically reduced the need for
lorry movements from the site, this not only directly reduced CO2
emissions from the site traffic it also reduced the number of lorries on
the surrounding roads, reducing CO2 and potential congestion to local
traffic saving:

 

·         4,400 vehicle (lorry) movements

·         50 tonnes CO2 (0.35kg/km)

·         22,000m3 of natural resources

 

The information supplied to you continues to be protected by the
Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. You are free to use it for your
own purposes, including any non-commercial research you are doing and for
the purposes of news reporting. Any other re-use, for example commercial
publication, would require the permission of the copyright holder. For
further information regarding Re-use of Public Sector Information please
see the following link
[1]https://www.bedford.gov.uk/council-and-d...

 

If you are unhappy with the way the authority has handled your request,
you may ask for an internal review. Please email:
[2][email address]  and we will arrange for an
internal review of your case. Under Regulation 11(2) this needs to be
done no later than 40 working days after the date of this letter.  If you
are not content with the outcome of the internal review, you have the
right to apply directly to the Information Commissioner for a decision.

 

The Information Commissioner can be contacted at:

Information Commissioner’s Office

Wycliffe House

Water Lane

Wilmslow

Cheshire

SK9 5AF

[3]www.ico.gov.uk          

 

Yours sincerely

 

Andrea Bechtle

FOI & EIR Officer - Environment & Enabling Services

Bedford Borough Council

Borough Hall, Cauldwell Street

Bedford, MK42 9AP

 

 

 

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