This study aims at developing a life cycle assessment (LCA) model to quantify the impact of pavement preservation on energy consumption and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. The construction stage contains material, manufacture, transportation and placement phases. The Highway Development and Management (HDM-4) model and the Motor Vehicle Emission Simulator (MOVES) were used to analyze fuel consumption and emissions treated by different preservation treatments. Surface characteristics such as roughness, texture and deflection were taken into account in tire rolling resistance. The thin overlay was found to have the highest energy consumption and emissions among four preservation treatments during construction stage, but at the same time resulted in the greatest reduction of energy and emission at usage stage. If only construction stage is considered, energy and emissions are ruled by use of amount of material and manufacture process. The reductions of GHG emission at usage stage are much greater than the GHG emission produced at construction stage for all preservation treatments. Excluding the usage stage will omit the fact that construction stage has less impact on pavement LCA than usage stage. The study results provide valuable insights in selecting sustainable pavement maintenance strategies from an environmental view point.
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