LCA and LCCA Framework for Sustainable Concrete and Asphalt Roads
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1) The document discusses a project investigating the use of life cycle assessment (LCA) and life cycle cost analysis (LCCA) to evaluate the sustainability and cost-efficiency of concrete and asphalt roads. 2) The project aims to develop a framework to compare traditional and alternative pavement materials based on technical performance, climate impact reduction, and cost efficiency. 3) The methodology involves investigating current practices using environmental product declarations (EPDs) and other sustainability metrics in Sweden, and defining a sustainability framework for pavement materials assessments.
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LCA and LCCA Framework for Sustainable Concrete and Asphalt Roads
- 1. Possibilities with LCA and LCCA for sustainable concrete and asphalt roads Larissa Strömberg1,2, Anders Ansell2 and Johan Silfwerbrand2 24th Nordic Concrete Research Symposium, August 17-19, Stockholm 1 Svevia AB 2 KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Division of Concrete Structures, Sweden
- 2. Concrete Roads in Sweden Section of road Year Length (km) Status E6 Vellinge 1972 13 Overlaid with asphalt E4 Helsingborg 1978 7 Overlaid with asphalt E4.65 Arlanda 1990 1,6 In use E6/120 Falkenberg 1 1993 15 In use E6/120 Falkenberg 2 1996 13 In use E20 Eskilstuna 1999 14 In use E4 Uppsala 2006 23 In use Total 87 In use 67 24th Nordic Concrete Research Symposium, August 17-19, Stockholm
- 3. Project objectives • Ensure comparability of traditional and innovative alternative pavement materials. • Develop a framework to evaluate technical performance, climate impact reduction potential, and cost efficiency of alternative pavement materials. 24th Nordic Concrete Research Symposium, August 17-19, Stockholm
- 4. Methodology to achieve the project objective 1. Investigation of current practice with EPDs and other sustainability metrics in construction projects in Sweden 2. Definition of a sustainability framework for pavement materials. 24th Nordic Concrete Research Symposium, August 17-19, Stockholm
- 5. Current Practice with EPDs • Existing standards for EPD had to be adjusted • EPDs are comparable for module A1-A3 • Difficulties in setting comparable system boundaries for different materials • Data Collection 24th Nordic Concrete Research Symposium, August 17-19, Stockholm
- 6. Investigation of current practice with sustainability metrics in construction projects in Sweden 24th Nordic Concrete Research Symposium, August 17-19, Stockholm
- 7. Conclusion • A sustainability declaration based on: • Methodology • EN 17472 • EN 15643-5 • EN 15804/ISO 21930 • Framework for comparability: • Based on the national technical design guidelines • The same system boundaries for LCA, LCC and technical performance • The assessment covers all stages of the whole road structure (on the road level) • Mapping the available data for concrete pavements in US/EU 24th Nordic Concrete Research Symposium, August 17-19, Stockholm
- 8. Acknowledgements • Funding: • Swedish Construction Industry Development Fund (SBUF), Project ID 13722 • Sweden’s Innovation Agency (Vinnova) through Strategic Innovation Program InfraSweden2030 • Participating companies: • Clients: • Swedish Transport Administration, Sweden • Swedavia, Sweden • Finnish Transport Infrastructure Agency, Finland • Contractors • NCC, Sweden • Svevia, Sweden • Peab, Sweden • Skanska, Sweden • Academia • KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Sweden • University of Pittsburgh, USA. 24th Nordic Concrete Research Symposium, August 17-19, Stockholm
- 9. Thank you! Dr. Larissa Strömberg larissa.stromberg@svevia.se 24th Nordic Concrete Research Symposium, August 17-19, Stockholm
Editor's Notes
- Because of the lack of experience in design and construction of concrete pavements, see Table, most roads in Sweden are being built of asphalt. The asphalt pavements are considered a cheaper alternative taking into account the initial investments, but their maintenance might be costly over time. Moreover, an increase in axle weights, changes of the traditional ways of travel, e.g., the use of automated and guided vehicles, and stricter customer requirements on reducing the climate impact require new approaches and the creation of science-based frameworks to steer the road and pavement industry towards more climate neutral solutions.
- Thus, the need for a theoretical framework for correctly conducted comparisons of various pavement materials in terms of cost-efficiency to reduce the climate impact, is increasing, especially for new types of climate-neutral fuels, machines, and materials, so that sub-optimizations and oblique competition do not arise at various stages of the construction process: in early planning, procurement, detail planning, production, operation, maintenance and recycling. Objectives • Ensure Comparability of traditional and innovative alternative pavement materials. • Develop a framework to evaluate technical performance, climate impact reduction potential, and cost efficiency of alternative pavement materials. This would create momentum for developing innovative climate-smart pavements.
- Methodology to Achieve the project objective is • Investigation of current practice with EPDs and other sustainability metrics in construction projects in Sweden • Definition of a sustainability framework for pavement materials.
- Both European and Northen American authorities are beginning to demand the Environmental Product Declaration (EPDs) as a certificate of the pavements’ environmental performances from the contractors. The information in an EPD can be also accepted for use in reporting, marketing, procurement, and development of the product. There are some methodological difficulties to use the EPDs for comparison of the environmental impacts between different asphalt mixes or between the asphalt- and concrete pavements. In both Scandinavia and the USA, EPDs are currently limited to the assessment of environmental impact of the pavement manufacturing (modules A1 to A3). Therefore, the current implementation of the EPD system is limited to comparison of the same type of the pavements, e.g., the same asphalt mix from different producers. There have been some challenges in using EPDs to communicate LCA results for pavements. Some of the challenges include defining system boundaries for different types of asphalt and concrete. Asphalt mixes may have different production methods such as production temperatures and additives. The comparison between asphalt and concrete pavements is an even more complex issue that has been discussed by the asphalt and concrete industries for many years. A more comprehensive EPD that includes the other EPD modules such as the service stage (module B) and the end-of-life stage (module C) requires more specific data on the future maintenance and repair scenarios.
- The current road design process is geared towards fulfillment of the technical requirements by establishing a final solution fairly early in the planning stage. The "locked" technical solutions are difficult to change later in the detailed design stage, when it is possible to calculate more precisely an LCA/EPD or an LCCA for a whole service life of a pavement. There is a dilemma in complying with existing design guidelines to meet technical requirements while optimizing a road pavement in order to reduce the climate impact, because the climate impact reduction targets are not part of the current early design process. This study has shown that there is no constancy in the requirements for calculation, reporting, optimization and follow-up of the different sustainability metrics in the Swedish client’s project specifications. In Sweden, separate design methods and tools are used to analyze and optimize different sustainability metrics of pavements, as it shown in the table. The technical design of road pavements complies with the national regulations and is carried out in software PMS Objekt. LCCA for repairs of existing or planning of new road projects is done using the LCC tool for road superstructure. The Swedish industry uses EPDs as a declaration of both asphalt and concrete pavements’ environmental performance. The clients place bidding requirements on estimation of the environmental impact of asphalt pavements with the LCA tool for asphalt pavement, EKA. STA also has the requirement to calculate and report the climate impact of the whole infrastructure project, as a road in the Klimatkalkyl tool. All these tools have different system boundaries and evaluate different parts of the road life cycle.
- In the long term, more extensive sustainability assessment allowing comparison of various pavement materials must be developed. This paper has identified several standards that can be used to solve the issues with comparison of various material types with the EPDs. In this article, we have investigated if these standards can be used to form a framework to create an extended sustainability declaration of road pavements allowing a multidisciplinary comparison of road pavements based on technical, environmental, and economic performance. We propose the use of the EN 15804 (or its international equivalent ISO 21930) along with three other standards, EN 15643-5, EN 17472 and ISO 15686-5, to develop a standardized declaration of the overall sustainability performance of road pavements. By combining these standards, it would enable establishing of a framework for assessment of multiple aspects of the road pavement’s performance. According to the analyzed standards, comparison of various pavements must be made on the basis of the same functional equivalent and within the same system boundaries, which creates comparability of various material choices. There is need for an internationally accepted framework to set a functional equivalent based on the national technical requirements and guidelines for specific road pavements in the bidding requirements and in validating the results meeting these requirements, including technical performance, climate impact reduction goal, and cost efficiency in the design phase. International collaboration and sharing of service life data are essential for compensation of the lack of local experience with certain design solutions. The proposed sustainability framework of the road pavements can be implemented as a global international database for most frequently used road pavements, both in Sweden and USA. When the Swedish-specific information is not available, it is proposed to fill in the short-term gaps in data with the information on pavement design and performance of the US pavements in the climate conditions similar to Swedish.
- The Swedish Construction Industry Development Fund (SBUF) is acknowledged for funding of the project Adaptation of road design to LCA and LCCA (project ID: 13722). The authors would like to thank Sweden’s Innovation Agency (Vinnova) through Strategic Innovation Program InfraSweden2030 and the companies and organizations that funded and participated in the project.