Multi-attribute life cycle assessment of preventive maintenance treatments on road pavements for achieving environmental sustainability

Purpose Although a significant number of environmental protection measures concerning industrial products and processes have emerged over the past few years, similar measures have only started to appear in road construction and related practices. There is a need for understanding what a "sustainable pavement" would entail in terms of greenhouse gas emissions and energy consumption. Since environmental impact assessment of major projects is becoming mandatory in many countries, various research projects attempt to evaluate the environmental impact of different pavement materials, technologies, or processes over the road life cycle. To support these efforts, there is a need to measure and describe different aspects of sustainability related to road pavements. In particular, keeping road pavements at high service levels through a preventive maintenance approach during the pavement service life has been proven to provide significant improvement of their performance and reduce their deterioration rate. Methodology This paper describes an innovative methodology to evaluate the environmental impact of preventive maintenance activities. It relates these activities to performance and cost during the service life of the pavement through a multi-attribute "life cycle cost, performance, and environmental analysis". Emissions and energy saved adopting several preventive maintenance strategies were computed, relating them to cost and performance. Equipment and materials usually involved in road maintenance practices were also analyzed in order to assess specific fuel consumption and energy spent. An ad hoc index was ultimately created, adopting a script file to evaluate the best strategy through the multi-attribute approach. Results and conclusions Results show how eco-effective it can be to improve pavement management practices on roads by implementing energy efficient treatments and strategies. Furthermore, eco-saving factors could represent a new and innovative feature to be

Sustainability Analysis based on Emissions saving for Competitive Maintenance and Rehabilitation Practices

AbstractAlthough roads are preponderant in terms of extension and usage, airports and air transport entail a prominent part of emissions and energy consumption worldwide. There is a need for improving airport pavements construction and maintenance practices in order to limit greenhouse gasses and set environmental standards towards the development of more “sustainable airports.” Since environmental impact assessment of major projects is becoming mandatory in many countries, various researches are attempting to evaluate environmental impacts of different pavement materials, technologies or processes over the airport service life. There is a need to measure and describe different aspects of airport pavements sustainability to support these efforts. This paper analyzes emissions saved in reusing and valorizing existing in situ soils through a cement stabilization for improving the bearing capacity of the runway cleared and graded area and/or constructing new sub-base pavement layers. The analysis evaluates emissions due to equipment and materials comparing them with the supplying of large amounts of aggregates from nearby quarries to build granular layers. A case study of a major Italian airport is finally provided. Results show the eco-efficiency of improving pavement management practices adopting energy efficient treatments on airports. Furthermore, eco-saving factors could represent a new and innovative feature to be added in process of evaluating different strategies and investments in an Airport Pavement Management System

Life-cycle analysis of a new composite material for bridge pavementwaterproofing

one of the most critical issues related to bridge management and preventive maintenance is deck waterproofing. Infiltration of meteoric and rain-wash water into the bridge asphalt pavement through unsealed cracks could produce a series of chain events that leads towards an accelerated decay of the bridge structural adequacy. Actions like crack sealing and general waterproofing are main activities; they can in fact slow down the deterioration and reduce the life-cycle costs. An effective protection system against water is one of the key factors for a functional and efficient bridge management plan. However, benefits associated with such maintenance activities are seldom correctly accounted and, in many instances, they are not even considered at all. Consequently many road bridge authorities do not include pavement preventive maintenance activities in their infrastructures management programs. Recent research has resulted in the development of new technologies in the field of crack sealing and pavement waterproofing. In this context, a new composite material for waterproofing interlayer membranes, to be “cold applied” (with great benefit for environment and workers) was studied and also tested in full scale experiments by Politecnico of Milano researchers. This paper presents the main characteristics and the performances of this new technology, applied to bridge pavements, followed by a life-cycle analysis to quantitatively show the savings of the road bridge authority and the benefits of the users (in terms of improved condition of the bridge pavement surface). The results obtained are of general validity as they can be extended to all similar technologies