Hidden Ecological Potentials in the Production of Materials for Swiss Road Pavements
Artikel i vetenskaplig tidskrift, 2012

Sustainability has become a major concern in the field of civil infrastructures in recent years. Developing road construction projects with lower ecological impacts over a project’s entire life cycle can help in making road infrastructure contribute to sustainable development. This study focuses on the ecological potentials in the production of road materials used in Swiss road pavements. The environmental assessment was performed using a cradle-to-gate life-cycle assessment (LCA) approach in which all processes from the raw material extraction to the finished product were considered. The comparison of the results of the best-case asphalt pavement and the standard asphalt pavement for Swiss highway construction shows ecological potentials of up to 55%. Use of the best-case concrete pavement lowers the environmental impact by up to 53% in comparison to the worst-case concrete pavement for Swiss highways. Concerning composite pavements, the best-case variant offers an ecological potential 38% higher than the standard pavement.

Switzerland

Pavements

Life cycles

Sustainable development

Författare

Florian Gschösser

Holger Wallbaum

Michael Bösch

Journal of Management in Engineering - ASCE

0742-597X (ISSN)

Vol. 27 1 13-21

Ämneskategorier

Transportteknik och logistik

Byggproduktion

Bearbetnings-, yt- och fogningsteknik

Infrastrukturteknik

Kompositmaterial och -teknik

DOI

10.1061/(ASCE)ME.1943-5479.0000077

Mer information

Skapat

2017-10-10