Geomechanics.io

A 7m pedestrian bridge in the Netherlands has been unveiled as the world’s first using a concrete mix claimed to be CO₂‑neutral over its life cycle. Developers report that the binder system and aggregate selection are engineered so that production and curing emissions are fully offset by in‑service CO₂ uptake, without relying on external carbon credits. For designers, the project signals that carbon‑neutral structural concrete is moving from lab trials to full‑scale applications, raising immediate questions on durability testing, Eurocode compliance and verification of whole‑life carbon accounting.

Researchers at Monash University have developed a hydrometallurgical process to recover high‑purity critical metals from spent lithium‑ion batteries using greener reagents than conventional strong mineral acids. Led by PhD student Parisa Biniaz and Dr Parama Banerjee, the lab‑scale method targets elements such as lithium, cobalt and nickel from shredded cathode material while minimising secondary waste streams. The approach points to lower‑impact recycling flowsheets that could reduce reliance on primary ore for battery metals and change leach chemistry assumptions in future plant design.

Versarien’s collapse puts its Cementene graphene-enhanced concrete admixture in doubt, raising questions over whether graphene additives can achieve consistent performance, certification and cost benefits in mainstream construction mixes. The UK Supreme Court’s Providence v Hexagon ruling is described as a landmark for late payment law, with implications for drafting and enforcing construction payment terms and adjudication strategies. A young plant hire firm in northeast England is reported to be achieving around 40% pre-tax margins, signalling strong demand and tight fleet management in regional equipment supply.

IStructE has released the Manual for the design of bamboo structures to ISO 22156:2021, a 10‑chapter structural engineering guide covering grading and mechanical properties, seismic and wind design, shear walls, durability and connection design for permanent bamboo buildings up to two storeys. Authored by INBAR Bamboo Construction Task Force members David Trujillo, Kent Harries, Sebastian Kaminski and Luis Felipe Lopez, the manual addresses bamboo supply chains and project management from sourcing through to detailed design. The publication formalises design provisions including fire considerations, aiming to make engineered bamboo a credible low‑carbon option in mainstream practice.

Building products manufacturer Marshalls has confirmed interim chief executive Simon Bourne, formerly chief commercial officer and a board member since 2022, as permanent CEO after a seven‑week internal and external search. Bourne’s first move was a trading update forecasting 2025 turnover up 2% with adjusted profit before tax in line with market expectations, but no underlying market improvement anticipated for 2026. Management is signalling that margin gains will depend on 2025 cost‑cutting and tighter execution of its “Transform & Grow” strategy across concrete, paving and landscaping product lines.

CRC Etch-10 is a phosphoric acid-based metal etch and cleaner formulated for abrasive mining environments to improve coating adhesion and corrosion resistance on steel substrates. The product is supplied as a ready-to-use liquid, designed to remove light rust, mill scale and surface contaminants prior to application of epoxy or polyurethane protective coatings on fixed plant, mobile equipment and structural steel. For maintenance engineers, it offers a controlled, chemical surface profile where abrasive blasting is impractical or restricted by access, dust or noise constraints.

Building materials producer Alumasc has appointed Pamela Bingham as chief executive from 31 March 2026, succeeding Paul Hooper after his 25-year tenure leading the group. Bingham, currently at seals and bearings specialist Eriks UK & Ireland as CEO, previously headed Glen Dimplex Heating & Ventilation and held senior roles at CRH, Weir Group and Rotork, bringing direct experience in industrial components and HVAC. Alumasc’s board is signalling continued focus on sustainable building products and decarbonisation-oriented solutions as the core of its next growth phase.

Administrators have been appointed to AIM-listed Versarien, developer of the Cementene graphene admixture and partner in HS2 trials of graphene‑reinforced 3D‑printed concrete with the Skanska Costain Strabag JV. The company, which helped Banagher Precast Concrete cut ordinary Portland cement content by 20% in a standard precast mix and signed a materials R&D agreement with Balfour Beatty, entered administration on 6 January 2026. Persistent losses of £4.3m on £2.4m revenue in the latest year and failed investment and M&A efforts triggered the move, with Leonard Curtis now seeking buyers for the business and assets.

Fox Group has appointed former Tarmac national commercial director Richard Kirwin as group commercial director, giving him responsibility for sales, marketing, product development and customer relations across its plant hire, quarrying, aggregates recycling, muck-away and ready-mix concrete operations. Kirwin brings 25 years’ experience at Tarmac, including four years in a UK-wide commercial role covering asphalt, aggregates and concrete supply to major infrastructure schemes. The move follows Blackpool-based Fox Brothers Holdings Group’s acquisition by Stellex Capital Management in September 2024, signalling an aggressive growth and materials innovation agenda in regional civils supply chains.

BlueScope has rejected an A$8.8 billion takeover bid from Steel Dynamics and SGH, which offered A$30 per share and proposed splitting the business, with Steel Dynamics taking North American operations and SGH retaining the rest. The board argued the offer undervalued assets including five North American businesses that delivered about 45% of FY2025 revenue, a steel mill in Ohio located roughly 130 km from a Steel Dynamics facility, and nearly 100 Australian sites generating A$6.95 billion in domestic sales. The decision comes amid 50% US steel import tariffs and BlueScope’s parallel interest in acquiring the Whyalla steelworks with partners Nippon Steel and Posco.

Researchers in Sweden have characterised how stainless steel corrodes in contact with liquid lead, providing data critical for structural components in lead‑cooled fast reactors proposed as alternatives to pressurised water designs. The work focuses on corrosion mechanisms at the steel–lead interface, including dissolution and oxide layer behaviour, which directly affect cladding integrity, vessel wall thickness allowances and inspection intervals. Findings are expected to inform material selection, allowable temperature windows and safety margins for future Generation IV lead‑cooled reactor projects.

Hillhouse Quarry Group, one of Scotland’s largest privately owned aggregates and asphalt producers, has appointed former NATS chief financial officer Alistair Borthwick as chief executive and promoted long-serving commercial director Mark Munro to managing director. The leadership change follows the planned April retirement of managing director Robert McNaughton, who led the family-run business for 18 years as it expanded from an Ayrshire quarry operator into a national group and entered Scotland’s top 100 private companies. For contractors and materials buyers, the move signals continuity in long-term supply relationships and pricing strategy, with added financial discipline from Borthwick’s infrastructure background.

BlueScope Steel has rejected as “unlikely to be acceptable” a A$13.15 billion (A$30 per share) takeover proposal from a consortium led by Kerry Stokes-backed SGH and US-based Steel Dynamics, despite the 27% premium to its pre-bid share price. The company disclosed it had already turned down three unsolicited approaches in late 2024 and early 2025, including Steel Dynamics-led bids at A$27.50 and A$29.00 per share focused on its North American operations. BlueScope, which runs the Port Kembla steelworks and almost 100 Australian sites generating A$6.95 billion in local sales, is also in talks with Nippon Steel and Posco over a potential acquisition of the Whyalla steelworks.

Sripath has launched ButaPhalt, a new polymer additive for polymer modified bitumen (PMB) blends designed to address long‑standing bonding and durability issues in road surfacings. The formulation is engineered to increase crosslinking connectivity within the binder matrix, improving cohesion between bitumen, polymer and aggregate while also boosting plant production efficiency. For pavement designers and asphalt producers, this signals potential for longer‑life wearing courses, better resistance to rutting and cracking, and fewer processing constraints when specifying high‑performance PMB mixes.

Scottish Water has signed an advance market commitment to procure almost 20,000m³ of low carbon concrete over five years, equivalent to about 30% of its current annual concrete use. The Innovate UK and Carbon Limiting Technologies-led scheme, funded by the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero, aims to aggregate up to 500,000m³ of demand to de-risk commercialisation of novel low carbon mixes. With Scottish Water investing over £1bn a year in infrastructure, the commitment signals material changes to mix design specifications and supply-chain carbon baselines on upcoming projects.

K-Briq, a masonry unit made from nearly 100% recycled construction and demolition waste, is now sold direct to consumers via B&Q’s diy.com online marketplace. Developed by Heriot-Watt University spin-out Kenoteq, the brick has already been specified by architects for commercial projects and award-winning festival installations, and is now being adopted for domestic renovations and garden walls. Wider retail availability signals growing client pressure for low‑carbon, circular materials in small‑scale builds as well as large commercial schemes.

Firebird Metals has reported manganese-iron phosphate (MFP) battery material results that exceed current Chinese industry purity standards, strengthening its case for high-spec cathode precursor supply. The high-purity MFP is targeted at lithium-ion battery applications, positioning Firebird’s planned production as a potential alternative to conventional manganese sulphate routes. For process engineers and metallurgists, the data point to viable upstream integration of manganese ore into value-added MFP with tighter impurity control than typical Chinese benchmark products.

Heidelberg Materials UK has awarded Mitsubishi Heavy Industries and Worley an EPCM contract to deliver a carbon capture facility at the Padeswood cement works in north Wales, following completion of FEED and a final investment decision with the UK government in September. Using MHI’s Advanced KM CDR Process, the plant is designed to capture about 800,000 tonnes of CO₂ per year from the existing kiln line, with commissioning targeted for 2029. The project will enable industrial-scale production of evoZero carbon captured near-zero cement, directly affecting embodied carbon specifications for UK infrastructure and building projects.

Timber imports into the UK reached 7.01m m³ in January–September 2025, 2.1% below 2024, with Q3 volumes only 0.2% down year-on-year as contractors restocked after strong Q2 construction activity. Softwood volumes fell nearly 3% but values rose 9% on a 12% price increase, while imported MDF slumped 25%, offset by gains in hardwood, particleboard, OSB, hardwood and softwood plywood, and engineered wood, including Finnish LVL up about 14% and still 83% of the UK market. Supply shifted away from Sweden, Germany and Ireland towards Latvia and Finland, and NSD forecasts softwood imports down 3% in 2025 before a 3.7% rebound in 2026.

Heidelberg Materials UK is trialling CarbonCure technology in ready-mixed concrete at its Greenwich plant in London, injecting pure manufactured CO₂ into fresh concrete where it mineralises permanently and allows around 5% less cement to be used. The process is claimed to cut concrete-associated emissions by 7–11 kg CO₂/m³ with no loss of performance, while potentially increasing strength through more efficient hydration. The Thameside plant also supplies calcined clay, evoBuild low carbon GGBS, crushed concrete, accelerators and evoZero near‑zero cement, positioning it as a low‑carbon materials hub.

Latrobe Magnesium has produced its first sustainable magnesium oxide at a demonstration plant in Hazelwood North, Victoria, using proprietary technology to extract magnesium from Latrobe Valley brown coal fly ash. The process targets commercial production of both magnesium metal and supplementary cementitious material (SCM)-grade by-products, aiming to replace imported magnesia and reduce cement clinker content. For geotechnical and concrete practitioners, locally sourced MgO and SCM from waste ash could alter binder specifications, shrinkage control strategies, and durability mix designs in eastern Australia.

German materials firm FibreCoat has developed zinc-coated fibres for use in reinforced concrete, claiming cathodic corrosion protection for embedded steel in highly alkaline environments where aluminium rapidly degrades. Dispersed within concrete mixes for marine and coastal structures, the zinc fibres could, subject to testing, extend asset service life by 20–30 years at a fraction of the cost of titanium fibre reinforcement. Chief executive Robert Brüll positions the heavier, less reflective zinc coating as a structural, durability-focused alternative for multi-storey car parks, docks, ports and bridges.

Use of calcined clay concrete on the London Museum project, led by Sir Robert McAlpine with close input from engineers, contractors and materials suppliers, is enabling on-site deployment of a lower-clinker, lower-carbon mix rather than limiting it to precast elements. The team is adapting mix design and placing methods in real time on a live heritage-site build, addressing workability, setting time and strength-gain behaviour under typical UK site conditions. For practitioners, this signals growing confidence in calcined clay binders for mainstream structural applications where conventional CEM I would previously have been specified.

Versarien plc, developer of the Cementene graphene admixture, has filed a notice of intention to appoint Leonard Curtis as administrators, triggering a two-week protection period and suspension of AIM share trading while creditors consider options. Cementene was shown by Banagher Precast Concrete in 2023 to enable a 20% reduction in ordinary Portland cement in a standard precast mix, and Versarien had a collaboration agreement with Balfour Beatty to develop new concrete materials. The company has also supplied graphene technology to HS2 trials with the Skanska Costain Strabag JV and participates in National Highways’ Roads Research Alliance and the Digital Roads of the Future project.

SAMI Bitumen Technologies’ parent company COLAS is rolling out its ‘One COLAS Bitumen’ (OCB) framework to standardise bitumen binders, emulsions and polymer-modified products across its global network of terminals and laboratories. Shared specifications, mix designs and performance testing protocols allow Australian road projects to draw directly on European and North American experience with low-temperature binders, warm-mix additives and high-recycled asphalt content. For pavement designers and asset owners, this means more consistent binder behaviour across climates, faster validation of new formulations and clearer pathways to lower‑carbon surfacings.

Building products manufacturer Marshalls has parted company with chief executive Matt Pullen with immediate effect, less than two years after his January 2024 appointment, following half-year results showing operating profit down 37% and pre-tax profit down 46% despite a 4% revenue increase. Chief commercial officer Simon Bourne becomes interim CEO while the board begins an external search for a permanent replacement. Chair Vanda Murray signalled a push to “refocus” and accelerate the Transform & Grow strategy, indicating likely scrutiny of product mix, margins and capital allocation on future schemes.

Holcim UK has acquired PJ Thory and its subsidiaries Gemmix and Pro Minimix, adding nine sites with sand and gravel and limestone quarries, readymix concrete plants and a secondary aggregate recycling centre across the East Midlands and east of England. The deal follows Heidelberg Materials’ purchase of Mick George, with the Competition & Markets Authority having previously forced quarry and readymix disposals that helped make Gemmix the UK’s largest independently owned readymix supplier. Holcim gains additional mineral reserves, expanded readymix coverage and stronger recycled aggregate capacity in a region of intense competition.

VEGA is promoting non-contact, maintenance-free level monitoring for crushed limestone and cement handling, using radar-based sensors across quarrying, crushing, mixing and stockpiling operations. The systems are designed to cope with dust, build-up and variable bulk densities typical of silos, hoppers and stockpiles, avoiding mechanical floats or ultrasonic units that require frequent cleaning and recalibration. For road and infrastructure plants, this enables tighter control of feed rates and inventory in high-throughput cement and aggregate circuits, with fewer shutdowns for sensor access.