Infrastructure company Murphy is carrying out what it calls the first permanent-works use in the UK of concrete made with low-carbon cement from Dublin-headquartered firm Ecocem.

Working with Breedon, the team is using the low-carbon concrete for the capping beam cast on a contiguous pile wall at the Shipley Depot for the Transpennine Route Upgrade, a multi-billion-pound programme of rail improvements across the Pennines between Manchester, Huddersfield, Leeds and York.

The pour is being carried out in 12 phases over 12 weeks. Altogether, it will involve pouring some 150 cu m of concrete.

That’s a jump from its previous pour using Ecocem’s “ACT” cement for 38 cu m of concrete for temporary works at Uxbridge.

Going round the equator twice

In 2024, Ecocem obtained a European Technical Assessment (ETA) for its cement, which it says achieves a 70% reduction in CO2 compared with the average European cement blend. It does this by cutting the clinker content by up to 70% and replacing it with available fillers and local supplementary cementitious materials.

When the Shipley Depot pour is finished, Murphy said it expects to make a carbon saving of 145kg of CO2 per cu m against the benchmark CIII/A concrete mix.

Murphy said that saving is equivalent to the electricity used by 20 UK homes a year, or an average car travelling around the equator twice.

The company’s engineering manager, Kyle Stott, said: “This latest pour is both an example of innovation utilised for the good of the engineering industry, and a further demonstration of our commitment to creating a greener Murphy, becoming net positive by 2050.”

Murphy is working in an alliance with Network Rail, VolkerRail, Siemens and Systra, known as Tru East, on the York to Leeds section. Last May, Ecocem said it would invest €170m to build four new production lines for its ACT cement near Dunkirk in France. It also has factories in Ireland and the Netherlands.