Balfour Beatty to build first highways living wall

Balfour Beatty Living Places is to build the UK’s first living wall on a highway, alongside green infrastructure firm Biotecture.The project for Southampton City Council will see the construction of the hydroponic living wall start this summer on the newly completed Millbrook roundabout.Hydroponic living walls are sustainable, vertical installations containing living plants and foliage which grow without the need for soil.Balfour Beatty claimed it would remove air pollutants through the absorption of gases such as carbon dioxide, sulphur dioxide and nitrogen dioxide, as well as hazardous particulate matter.The company will now install the foundations and six-metre-high steel frame, while Biotecture will design and position the hydroponic living wall.Project completion is expected in autumn 2019.