SMRUK open days, demonstrations & training.

SMRUK, the UK’s leading soil stabilisation specialists, in partnership with Richardson Recycling, hosted an industry open day in 2017 to present to the utilities and construction industries the benefits of using ‘Structural Material for Reinstatement’, better known as SMR. Following on from this SMRUK also held a demonstration day in Swansea with the local council and local contractors in early 2019, In this demonstration we showed the benefits of using SMR using our Hand Mix product in conjunction with our recommended Cold Lay product. Finally, SMRUK also held several training days for Clancy Docwra in the South East in 2020.

SMRUK’s Open Day at Richardson Recycling.

With recycling targets for construction and civil engineering companies being set even higher, SMRUK in partnership with Richardson Recycling invited leading reinstatement specialists and senior officers from the Suffolk & Norfolk Highways Department to a demonstration showcasing how excavated material can be transformed into a highly effective recycled sub-base product.

SMRUK produces a specially formulated dry mix powder, which when added to excavated spoil material, is transformed in minutes into a high quality sub-base replacement called SMR.

With typically 2% by volume of the SMR material being combined with excavated spoil using mobile screeners and batch-mix equipment the resulting chemical reaction dries out and stabilises the material for optimum compaction. The soil particles become bonded together, increasing the density and strength of the soil by as much as 600%, resulting in a high quality structural reinstatement material being created which consistently outperforms traditional materials such as Type1 GSB.

Attending on the day were representatives from Balfour Beatty, Clancy Docwra, Anglian Water, Norfolk Contracting Division, in addition to senior officers from Norfolk Highways, some of which are already using SMR on various projects. During the open day, held at the Morningthorpe Quarry headquarters of Richardson Recycling, attendees were introduced to the speed at which material brought in from the highways could be recycled into a useable sub-base using the new mobile screening and batching unit which was designed and built by Richardson’s specifically for this purpose.

“With sustainability high on the agenda, many utility companies in the UK are now turning to SMR to better use excavated material,” comments Andy Bareham, the Technical Director at SMR (UK). “To date, we have been instrumental in helping contractors divert over two million tonnes of excavated material from landfill using the SMR product. Clancy Docwra, one of our partners attending today’s event, are currently using SMR on the Anglian Water (Integrated Maintenance and Repair) contract. To date over 36,000 tonnes of excavated material has been diverted from landfill amounting to £486,000 saved on tipping fees alone, without calculating other savings related to transportation and waiting time.”

In April 2020, the UK landfill tax increased to a standard rate of £94.15 per tonne with an inert rate of £3 per tonne, this is very likely to increase again in April 2021.

The actual cost of non-hazardous soil disposal also varies across the country, typically costing around £20 to £50 a tonne with the cost of disposing contaminated soil being significantly higher. Transport costs further push the cost of disposing of waste material and with heavy diesel transport operators being increasingly penalised for inner city movements, reusing materials where they were excavated makes sound environmental sense.

Swansea demonstration:

We also hold demonstration days for companies & organisations thinking about using our product to help them visualise SMR in action.

This can be done at a location within your site that its purpose is purely for training/demonstration or we are happy to join you on location at an active site to show you how our products would be used in a real-world scenario.

During the demonstration, we will take you step by step on how the process is completed & during the demo we will test the material once compacted using our Clegg Impact Hamer or Terratest LWD.

In 2019 we held a demonstration day in Swansea with Swansea council and surrounding Local Authorities in attendance to showcase our products and the services our company offers.

We find that our demonstration days are highly effective & by being able to demonstrate our products/services on location really allows the people we are demonstrating to understand further.

Clare Stevens is our Managing Director & was in attendance to demonstrate & discuss further what SMRUK can offer.

“We have a very effective website & informative marketing material to aid all our products & services but there is still nothing more effective than conducting a live demonstration in order to visualise and appreciate how SMR works” comments Clare. She went on to say “We believe in our product so much that there is never a job we won’t try & find a solution for, thats why SMRUK really exceed expectations and our customers return year on year”.

Some of the effective & informative marketing material previously spoken about is our case studies. Following every project we collate all relative data and create an informative case study that will document the problem & the solution.

Training day section:

One of the services we are continuing to offer is for Martin Thomas, our Product & Training Manager to attend sites to offer training on our products. This allows the audience to appreciate what benefits the products have along with the ability to visually see the training in action. The one to one support allows for us to answer any questions that customers may have and to ensure that our product is applied correctly to achieve the best results.

Martin has a huge amount of experience with our products & is more than happy to lead training sessions for your staff that are unfamiliar with SMR and offer refresher session for operatives, supervisors and managers. We provide a tool box talk with video instructions prior to onsite training. We provide certificates for all participants we successfully complete our training sessions.

At the start of the year Martin visited a few Clancy Docwra sites in the south east of England to offer training for their re-instatement teams. Both days we had in excess of 50 people watching wanting to learn or simply have a refresher in our products & the best way to use them. We find this is a great opportunity for the operatives using our products day in day out to ask questions and to better understand our product & its vast capabilities.

Martin Said “The operatives have told me that they find the training to be so beneficial. The gangs seem to respond well to our hands on and honest approach. What we provide, is far more than an instruction leaflet”. He went on to say that “The feedback he gets post training is always positive with gangs stating that as a result of the training, they have improved their skills & productivity”.

Why not take a look at our FAQ’s on Hand Mix to find out a little more about the product & see the questions we get asked during our training sessions.

For more information on the SMR soil stabiliser process or to find out the benefits of joining the growing national network of recycling ‘HUB’ partners either call 01252 710772 or visit www.smruk.com