MOTORISTS using the M50 are driving over broken glass - but without any risk of puncturing their tyres.
Part of the road was re-surfaced using glass from local bottle banks which was crushed and mixed with limestone and bitumen.
It is the first time the substance, called Glasphalt, has been used on a British motorway.
Around 35,000 tonnes was used to cover 5.4 kilometres between junctions one and two. It forms part of the base and binder courses - the layers immediately below the surface.
A spokesman for RMC Aggregates, which developed Glasphat, said it provided a suitable use for stockpiles of predominantly green glass that had very few other applications.
"Its use reduces disposal of glass at landfill sites and scales down extraction of primary aggregate," he said.
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