Railroad maintenance crews in the U.K. have been using sprayed polymer to strengthen track ballast for about a decade. One contractor now aims to go one step further and use strengthened ballast as a non-intrusive reinforcement for some of the country’s 25,000 aging brick-and-stone arch bridges.

Balfour Beatty Rail Ltd., Redhill, is offering a method to treat a bridge and its polymer-coated ballast as a composite structure. The resulting enhanced strength of the arch can eliminate the need for concrete or steel reinforcement, says Andy Curzon, BBR’s head of technical services.