SAMI sustainable spray seals in Australia: design and procurement notes for engineers
Reviewed by Joe Ashwell
First reported on Roads & Infrastructure (AU)
30 Second Briefing
An Australian-first spray seal project delivered by Colas, SAMI Bitumen Technologies and Hutchinson Quarry uses SAMI’s polymer-modified binders and locally sourced aggregates to meet national sustainable procurement guidelines without reducing performance. The seal incorporates higher recycled content and lower embodied carbon materials while maintaining conventional heavy vehicle loading and texture depth requirements for rural arterial roads. For asset owners and contractors, the work shows that guideline-compliant low‑carbon seals can be specified within existing Austroads design frameworks and standard spray equipment.
Technical Brief
- National sustainable procurement guidelines were treated as hard design constraints rather than optional add-ons to the seal design.
- For similar construction works, the project indicates low‑carbon spray seals can be procured under current contract forms.
Our Take
SAMI Bitumen Technologies and Colas are appearing together in multiple Roads & Infrastructure Magazine items in our database, including the Auckland low‑carbon asphalt trial, which suggests Colas is positioning SAMI products as a group-wide sustainability offering rather than a purely local Australian solution.
The Auckland Transport project using SAMIGreen shows that SAMI’s low‑carbon binders are already accepted by at least one major public road authority, which is likely to strengthen SAMI’s case when pitching similar sustainable products to Australian state road agencies referenced in this article.
Prepared by collating external sources, AI-assisted tools, and Geomechanics.io’s proprietary mining database, then reviewed for technical accuracy & edited by our geotechnical team.
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