Project Summary
An increasing number of agencies, companies, organizations, institutes, and governing bodies have increased their efforts to quantify sustainability effects as they pertain to pavements and other transportation infrastructure. Local governments and others considering the environmental life cycle impacts of transportation infrastructure decisions do not have a tool to quantify those impacts. Available tools primarily consist of checklists and scoring systems that do not provide a quantitative assessment for the system considered in the project and its use over the life cycle. The purpose of this project is to further develop a pavement life cycle assessment (LCA) tool developed for Caltrans and university research purposes so that it can serve as a practical tool for quantifying the environmental impacts of transportation infrastructure. LCA is a methodology for analyzing and quantifying the environmental impacts of a product, system, or process. LCA provides a comprehensive, quantitative approach to evaluating the total environmental burden of a product or process by examining all of the inputs and outputs over the life cycle (i.e., from raw material production to end of life) and converting those inputs and outputs into impact indicators using US and internationally recognized formal standards. The impacts that will be considered are those recommended in the Federal Highway Administration’s pavement LCA framework, including global warming potential, air pollution, water pollution, non-renewable resource use, and primary energy consumption. The scope of transportation infrastructure in the current tool includes pavement for all purposes, which will be expanded in the proposed project to consider active transportation features, typical highway bridges, drainage features, lighting and landscape at a conceptual design level of detail or based on quantities from complete or nearly complete designs.
