Collaboration between Saint-Gobain PAM, Kent County Council Highways, Transportation & Waste and Amey contractors has solved a problem of failing and noisy access covers on a heavily trafficked carriageway, which serves as part of a dedicated Fastrack bus route.

John Reynolds, Highways Engineer for Kent County Council Highways, Transportation & Waste, said: "We were having continual issues with access covers failing particularly where there was heavy loading and turning in one location. I decided to approach Saint-Gobain PAM so that we could trial a new solution. They suggested both a new access cover which incorporates an elastomer gasket to help absorb pressure from traffic travelling over it and addressing the actual installation of product.

"We decided to trial their solution at the location where we had the most issues with a failing installation. It has now been in situ for 18 months and we have had no complaints in that time from residents. As a result of this collaboration we now replace any failed access cover with the Saint-Gobain PAM Pamrex cover on our A and B roads, or those carriageways which have particular issues and insist that we only use Amey trained contractors for its installation. To date there have been no failures on the 30 plus new covers that we have since installed on our roads.”