A life cycle assessment model for pavement management: road pavement construction and management in Portugal

AbstractRecently, applications of soil and water bioengineering constructions using living plants and supplementary materials have become increasingly popular. Besides technical effects, soil and water bioengineering has the advantage of additionally taking into consideration ecological values and the values of landscape aesthetics. When implementing soil and water bioengineering structures, suitable plants must be selected, and the structures must be given a dimension taking into account potential impact loads. A consideration of energy flows and the potential negative impact of construction in terms of energy and greenhouse gas balance has been neglected until now. The current study closes this gap of knowledge by introducing a method for detecting the possible negative effects of installing soil and water bioengineering measures. For this purpose, an environmental life cycle assessment model has been applied. The impact categories global warming potential and cumulative energy demand are used in this paper to describe the type of impacts which a bioengineering construction site causes. Additionally, the water bioengineering measure is contrasted with a conventional civil engineering structure. The results determine that the bioengineering alternative performs slightly better, in terms of energy demand and global warming potential, than the conventional measure. The most relevant factor is shown to be the impact of the running machines at the water bioengineering construction site. Finally, an integral ecological assessment model for applications of soil and water bioengineering structures should point out the potential negative effects caused during installation and, furthermore, integrate the assessment of potential positive effects due to the development of living plants in the use stage of the structures.

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Performance Evaluation of Road Pavement Green Concrete: An Application of Advance Decision-Making Approach before Life Cycle Assessment

Coatings ◽

10.3390/coatings11010074 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 11 (1) ◽

pp. 74

Author(s):

Hatem Alhazmi ◽

Syyed Adnan Raheel Shah ◽

Muhammad Aamir Basheer

Keyword(s):

Life Cycle Assessment ◽

Life Cycle ◽

Development Process ◽

Rice Husk Ash ◽

Testing Procedure ◽

Infrastructure Development ◽

Rigid Pavement ◽

Waste Products ◽

Road Pavement ◽

Pavement Structures

Rigid pavement structures are one of the costly components of the infrastructure development process. It consumes a huge quantity of ingredients necessary for concrete development. Hence, a newly introduced concept of circular economy in combination with waste management was introduced to solve this problem. In this study, three waste products (rice husk ash (RHA), wood sawdust (WSD), and processes waste tea (PWT)) was utilized to develop the concrete for rigid pavement structures by replacing the sand, i.e., a filler material at different percentages. During the testing procedure of compressive (CS), tensile (TS), and flexural strength (FS) properties, RHA and WSD at 5% replacement were found to be a good replacement of sand to develop required concrete. This study will help in the production of eco-friendly rigid pavement structures and a pathway of life cycle assessment in the future.

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Decision to paving solutions in road infrastructures based on life-cycle assessment

The Baltic Journal of Road and Bridge Engineering ◽

10.3846/bjrbe.2016.05 ◽

2016 ◽

Vol 11 (1) ◽

pp. 43-52 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Maria de Lurdes Antunes ◽

Vânia Marecos ◽

José Neves ◽

João Morgado

Keyword(s):

Life Cycle Assessment ◽

Life Cycle ◽

Decision Process ◽

Life Cycle Cost ◽

Road Network ◽

Construction Costs ◽

Road Pavement ◽

Pavement Structures ◽

Using Data ◽

Term Performance

The construction and maintenance of a road network involve the expenditure of large budgets. In order to optimize the investments in road infrastructures, designers and decision makers should have the instruments to make the most suitable decision of paving solutions for each particular situation. The life-cycle assessment is an important tool of different road pavement solutions with this purpose. This paper presents a study concerning the life-cycle cost analysis of different flexible and semi-rigid paving alternatives, with the objective to contribute for a better support in the decision process when designing new pavement structures. The analysis was carried out using data on construction costs of certain typical pavement structures and taking into consideration appropriate performance models for each type of structure being selected. The models were calibrated using results from long term performance studies across Europe and the maintenance strategies considered have taken into account the current practice also found in the European context. Besides the life-cycle administration costs, the proposed methodology also deals with user and environmental costs through its inclusion in the decision process using multi-criteria analysis. It was demonstrated that this methodology could be a simple and useful tool in order to achieve the most adequate paving solutions of a road network, in terms of construction and maintenance activities, based simultaneously on technical, economic and environmental criteria.

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The challenge of incorporating animal welfare in a social life cycle assessment model of European chicken production

The International Journal of Life Cycle Assessment ◽

10.1007/s11367-018-1565-2 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 24 (6) ◽

pp. 1093-1104 ◽

Cited By ~ 5

Author(s):

Craig W. Tallentire ◽

Sandra A. Edwards ◽

Tommy Van Limbergen ◽

Ilias Kyriazakis

Keyword(s):

Life Cycle Assessment ◽

Life Cycle ◽

Animal Welfare ◽

Social Life ◽

Assessment Model ◽

Social Life Cycle Assessment

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Assessment of Eco-Friendly Pavement Construction and Maintenance Using Multi-Recycled RAP Mixtures

Recycling ◽

10.3390/recycling5030017 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 5 (3) ◽

pp. 17

Author(s):

David Vandewalle ◽

Vítor Antunes ◽

José Neves ◽

Ana Cristina Freire

Keyword(s):

Pavement Management ◽

Reclaimed Asphalt Pavement ◽

Reclaimed Asphalt ◽

Sustainable Solutions ◽

Average Decrease ◽

Bituminous Mixtures ◽

Road Pavement ◽

Pavement Construction ◽

The Impact ◽

Lca Results

The demand for more sustainable solutions has led an ever-growing number of stakeholders to being committed to pursue the principles of sustainability in pavement management. Different stakeholders have been looking for tools and methodologies to evaluate the environmental impacts of the solutions, for which the life cycle assessment (LCA) proved to be an appropriate methodology. This paper is focused on the LCA of road pavement multi-recycling based on the use of bituminous mixtures with high rates of reclaimed asphalt pavement (RAP). In order to promote the circular economy, a comparative analysis was performed on a road pavement section by taking into account different scenarios, which stem from the combination of production, construction and rehabilitation activities incorporating different RAP rates in new bituminous mixtures: 0% (as reference), 25%, 50%, 75% and 100%, respectively. LCA results have been expressed in terms of four damage categories: human health, ecosystem quality, climate change and resources. Results have shown that both recycled and multi-recycled bituminous mixtures lead to substantial benefits in comparison with the solution employing virgin materials, hence embodying a sustainable approach. The benefits grow with the increase in the RAP rate with an average decrease of 19%, 23%, 31% and 33% in all the impact categories for a 25%, 50%, 75% and 100% of RAP rate.

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Barriers to handpump serviceability in Malawi: life-cycle costing for sustainable service delivery

Environmental Science Water Research & Technology ◽

10.1039/d0ew00283f ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 6 (8) ◽

pp. 2138-2152

Author(s):

Jonathan P. Truslove ◽

Andrea B. Coulson ◽

Emma Mbalame ◽

Robert M. Kalin

Keyword(s):

Regression Analysis ◽

Life Cycle Assessment ◽

Life Cycle ◽

Service Delivery ◽

Water Supply ◽

Rural Community ◽

Life Cycle Costing ◽

Assessment Model ◽

Community Water

Life-cycle assessment model and regression analysis identifies drivers that negatively impact the lifecycle of community Afridev handpumps under various tariff scenarios for rural community water supply.

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