- Highways
- 24 Oct 2025
Working with Somerset Council, we’ve set a benchmark in sustainability by introducing practical and innovative carbon reduction strategies to the Firepool Northern Boulevard regeneration project.
The Firepool Boulevard is a major regeneration project within Tauton town centre, which forms part of a new active travel route, linking Taunton railway station with Vivary Park via the Firepool and Coal Orchard regeneration sites.
In line with our client and our own sustainability aspirations, our team focused on using low- carbon alternatives, using on-site material reuse and undertaking advance contaminated land remediation.
Following the initial assessments, we were aware that concrete mixes were responsible for 27% of the site’s carbon emissions. Since Firepool is a brownfield site, we also had to deal with old industrial pollution, including asbestos and coal tar. We knew we needed a proactive approach, aiming not just to meet legal requirements but also to lead in sustainable practices.
We worked closely with concrete suppliers to find more sustainable mix options, which could save us around 26 tonnes of CO2 emissions, as well as reduce cost. After successful trials, we confirmed these new mixes performed as well as traditional concrete, allowing us to use them on many areas of the project.
Reusing materials from the site, we crushed concrete from demolition to create fill for the project, as well as reusing an existing ramp. This approach saved about 1,500kg of CO2 emissions by avoiding 40 truck trips.
For the contaminated areas, we developed a plan to manage the asbestos and coal tar. By working with UK Remediation, we set up an on-site recycling facility to process the asbestos contaminated material to ensure it met legal
thresholds for re-use within the embankment.
Overall, our sustainability efforts led to impressive carbon savings of over 26,000kg in transport alone and saved around £170,000 by handling contamination on site. 7,500t of material was successful re-used within the project, actively avoiding waste to landfill. In total, the overall carbon saving from on-site remediation and material re-use was approximately 50tCO2e with the material re-use saving 24.6tCO2e and on-site remediation with 26tCO2e.
Peter Boden, Project Manager at M Group Highways, said: “The Firepool Boulevard project shows how targeted strategies and collaboration with client and supply chain can make a big difference in sustainability, benefitting both the community and the environment. We look forward to using lessons learnt from this approach on other projects, to meet both our clients and our own sustainability goals.”
