Winslow Infrastructure has secured Department of Transport and Planning approval to utilise RCPA’s low-carbon EKOPipe on VIDA Roads Watson Street Interchange Upgrade (WSIU) in Wallan, marking this as an industry first for Big Build projects in Victoria.
EKOPipe’s steel-reinforced concrete pipes will be used in place of conventional concrete pipes for the project’s stormwater drainage works, providing a practical way to minimise the project’s embodied carbon without changing the way the pipes are installed or used on site.
Developed by RCPA after more than a decade of research, EKOPipe uses proprietary BX3 technology to replace more than 80 per cent of Portland cement with supplementary cementitious materials.
In doing so, it reduces embodied CO2 by about 50 per cent compared with conventional concrete pipes.
A key benefit of EKOPipe is that it reduces carbon without requiring a new product of construction methods.
It uses standard materials, equipment and installation processes, making it a practical way to reduce embodied carbon while maintaining the strength, durability, service life and constructability of critical road infrastructure.
This directly supports the WSIU’s emissions reduction and sustainability goals. It also aligns with Victoria’s broader focus on using lower-carbon concrete and encouraging collaboration across the infrastructure industry.
Approvals like this will be critical to moving the wider use of lower-carbon products in the industry, providing a clear example of what that transition can look like: a proven product, familiar construction methods and a substantial carbon reduction, now applied within Victoria’s Big Build network.
