SUSTAINABLE ROADWAY CONSTRUCTION:ENERGY CONSUMPTION AND MATERIAL WASTEGENERATION OF ROADWAYS

摘要

Sustainable roadway construction can be defined as the optimal use of natural and man-maderesources during the roadway lifecycle causing negligible damage to the environment. Twomeans of improving the sustainability of roadways are to minimize the amount of energyconsumed for their construction and to efficiently use roadway materials to reduce waste.This paper describes two separate studies conducted to estimate the amount of energyconsumed and the amount of waste generated in continuously reinforced concrete pavement(CRCP) and asphalt pavement (AC) roadways from extraction of raw materials through theend of construction. For CRCP, energy is primarily consumed during the manufacture ofcement and reinforcing steel, while for AC the majority of energy is consumed during asphaltmixing, drying of aggregates, and the production of bitumen. With regard to material waste,most of the waste generated from CRCP roadways occurs during extraction and productionof cement and aggregates. For AC, the extraction and production of aggregates produce themajority of waste. The results indicate that the amount of wa ste generated is greater forCRCP than for AC. The results of the two studies highlight where sustainable design effortsto reduce energy consumption and waste generation can best be directed in the initial phasesof a pavement's life cycle.