Colas Ireland Group

The Colas Ireland Group consists of Chemoran, Atlantic Bitumen, Colas Bitumen Emulsions, Colas Contracting, SIAC Bituminous Products, StreetSweep and Viae. All Colas Ireland companies are involved in the road maintenance industry in Ireland, providing a complete pavement maintenance offer from material manufacture to asset management.

Colas Ireland Group has expanded greatly in size and range in the past 25 years. The emulsion supply arm of the group has been in operation in Ireland for over 70 years and the chemical division, Chemoran, has grown to be one of the largest suppliers of emulsifiers and bitumen additives for the asphalt industry worldwide. Atlantic Bitumen was established in 2007 to manage the importation, storage and distribution of bitumen and now supplies almost 20 independent asphalt manufacturers on the island. Colas Contracting has grown to become one of the leading suppliers of road maintenance techniques to Ireland’s local authorities, using techniques such as surface dressing, high-friction surfacing, micro-surfacing and in-situ recycling. These techniques are based on the bitumen emulsion technology which eliminates the requirement to heat the aggregate used. It is this characteristic that ensures these techniques have a lower carbon footprint compared to the more conventional hotmix asphalt alternatives. Colas Ireland were a key supplier of materials when Ireland’s motorway network was constructed between 2007 to 2011. More recently they formed a joint venture with Colas UK for maintaining a section of Ireland’s motorway network on behalf of the TII. In the past two years the group’s offering has been expanded by acquiring SIAC Bituminous Products Ltd, a leading supplier of asphalt mixtures in the Dublin region, a company called StreetSweep that specialises in road-planing and the traffic management company, Viae. Last year, they launched the ‘Go Green with Colas’ campaign to raise awareness to help to reduce the carbon footprint of pavement construction and road maintenance operations. Those responsible for the procurement of the required materials and services are now looking for more sustainable or climate friendly options with the need to respond to the state of climate emergency. Colas Ireland Group are using asphalt materials that are ‘glued’ together using bitumen emulsion technology – to make what are called cold-mix asphalts. There is a huge potential to reduce energy use and carbon emissions, when compared to the more conventional hot-mix asphalts. The Colas group of companies were the first company to introduce the cold-mix asphalt technology to local authorities in Ireland in the 1980’s and to trial warm-mix asphalts in the early noughties, with both Dublin City Council and county councils. Currently the group is trialling a new pavement preservation technique with the TII (Transport Infrastructure Ireland). “Our aim is to provide quality products and services to our customers. We aim to supply the correct product and the correct solution for the given road maintenance project. We strive to ensure that the customer is completely happy with the full package of advice, product, technical support and aftercare that we provide to them,” said Technical Director of Colas Ireland, Alan Kavanagh. “We identify our customer needs by trying to be as close to them as possible, by being available to talk, listening to their needs and defining what problems need solving. In addition, we organise educational seminars so that our customers are aware of what solutions we can offer and can express their own needs.” Kavanagh is fulsome in his praise for Colas staff: “Our staff members have been a crucial factor in the successful growth of our business over the past 25 years. Without dedicated, knowledgeable team members, caring and passionate about their work, we could not have developed new products and services and such strong customer relationships. Colas Ireland are proud to be accredited members of Engineers Ireland CPD scheme and invests heavily in the training, up-skilling, education and continuous development of our team members.” Concluding he adds: “We now place a huge value on the fuel reducing and carbon reducing characteristics and/or side effects of using these materials. As Colas are the leaders in this type of pavement technology and have the widest product portfolio in this sector, such a growth in demand can only be a great opportunity for us.”