Recycled asphalt road surfacing statistics: EIR release

Information requested

Information for each of the last 5 financial years:

1. The amount of miles of recycled tarmac laid?

2. The amount of miles of non-recycled tarmac laid?

3. The amount of miles of recycled tarmac replaced?

4. The amount of miles of non-recycled tarmac replaced?

5. The amount of reported pot holes on recycled tarmac?

6. The amount of reported pot holes on non-recycled tarmac?

Response

As the information you have requested is ‘environmental information’ for the purposes of the Environmental Information (Scotland) Regulations 2004 (EIRs), we are required to deal with your request under those Regulations. We are applying the exemption at section 39(2) of the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002 (FOISA), so that we do not also have to deal with your request under FOISA.

This exemption is subject to the ‘public interest test’. Therefore, taking account of all the circumstances of this case, we have considered if the public interest in disclosing the information outweighs the public interest in applying the exemption. We have found that, on balance, the public interest lies in favour of upholding the exemption, because there is no public interest in dealing with the same request under two different regimes. This is essentially a technical point and has no material effect on the outcome of your request.

Please note the following general points with respect to our response below:

• The term “Tarmac” is the trade name for one asphalt supply company. The preferred generic term for bituminous road surfacing materials is “Asphalt” and our response below will use this term.
• Road construction typically comprises three layers of asphalt known as Base Course, Binder course and Surface Course
• There are two mechanisms for re-using old asphalt within road construction. Full recycling of asphalt (where it is removed from the road, recycled and wholly replaced back into the road as a new surface) is covered under Clauses 947 and 948 of the Specification for Highway Works, which is freely available online. These techniques are still relatively uncommon and whilst quantities are provided below, you will notice that they are relatively low. This type of recycling is only used in the Base Course of the road.
• In addition to full recycling, the Specification for Highway Works permits the addition of varying proportions of “Recycled Asphalt Planings” to be mixed with virgin material to create “new” asphalt. This is common practice and the proportion can vary between 10% and 50%, meaning that a large proportion of “new” asphalt” contains some recycled material but this material is not recorded as “recycled” in our database. This type of recycling can be used in either the Base Course or the Binder Course.
• That data request is stored by calendar year rather than financial year and is therefore reported accordingly.

Our response to each of your requests is provided below and I have retained your original numbering for ease of reference.

1. Please see below table showing the number of miles as requested.

Calendar Year	Length of recycled asphalt (lane miles)
2016	1.4
2017	0.5
2018	1.2
2019	5.8
2020	5.1
2021	1.2
2022	6.8
2023	0

2. The information you have requested (The length of total asphalt replacement) is available from the Scottish TransportStatistics 2022, Chapter 4 https://www.transport.gov.scot/publication/scottish-transport-statistics-2022/

Under regulation 6(1)(b) of the EIRs, we do not have to give you information which is already publicly available and easily accessible to you in another form or format. If, however, you do not have internet access to obtain this information from the website(s) listed, then please contact me again and I will send you a paper copy.

3. While our aim is to provide information whenever possible, in this instance Transport Scotland does not have the information you have requested. Therefore we are refusing your request under the exception at regulation 10(4)(a) of the EIRs.

This is because no recycled asphalt has been replaced in the last 5 years.

4. The information you have requested (the length of non-recycled asphalt replacement) is available from the Scottish Transport Statistics 2022, Chapter 4  https://www.transport.gov.scot/publication/scottish-transport-statistics-2022/

Under regulation 6(1)(b) of the EIRs, we do not have to give you information which is already publicly available and easily accessible to you in another form or format. If, however, you do not have internet access to obtain this information from the website(s) listed, then please contact me again and I will send you a paper copy.

5. While our aim is to provide information whenever possible, in this instance Transport Scotland does not have the information you have requested. Therefore we are refusing your request under the exception at regulation 10(4)(a) of the EIRs.

This is because data on potholes is not held in a format that allows this reporting.

6. While our aim is to provide information whenever possible, in this instance Transport Scotland does not have the information you have requested. Therefore we are refusing your request under the exception at regulation 10(4)(a) of the EIRs.

This is because data on potholes is not held in a format that allows this reporting.

About FOI

The Scottish Government is committed to publishing all information released in response to Freedom of Information requests. View all FOI responses at http://www.gov.scot/foi-responses.