The A303 is a vital trunk road in southern England, running between Basingstoke in Hampshire and Honiton in Devon.

Most of the 150km route is dual carriageway, but some is single carriageway, including a 5.6km stretch between Sparkford and Ilchester in Somerset. It was often congested, and poor junction alignment and visibility increased the risk of accidents. Highways England proposed to turn this section into a dual carriageway to solve these issues.

It chose our Moata Carbon Portal for the project over its own carbon assessment tool to assess carbon emissions associated with construction and to inform the scheme’s environmental impact assessment (EIA).

Our tool enabled carbon hotspots to be identified and targeted, and low-carbon alternatives to be implemented. Our design solutions cut carbon emissions on the project by 46%. One of the main ways this was achieved was by widening the existing single carriageway stretch to dual status, instead of building an entirely new stretch of dual carriageway through surrounding countryside.

Since the A303 upgrade, all our projects in the south-west for Highways England use the portal.