Comparative Environmental and Economic Assessment of a Road Pavement Containing Multiple Sustainable Materials and Technologies
Construction and Building Materials 2024
Artūrs Riekstiņš, Viktors Haritonovs, Verners Straupe, Rolands Īzaks, Remo Merijs-Meri, Jānis Zicāns

This study evaluates the environmental and economic benefits of recycled asphalt (RA), recycled asphalt pavement (RAP), warm mix asphalt technology (WMA), wood fly ash (WFA), crumb rubber (CR) from end-of-life tires and kraft lignin in individual pavement courses and in a full-depth flexible pavement. The study performs LCA and LCCA for 19 individual mixtures (cradle-to-site) and six pavement scenarios (cradle-to-cradle). Four impact categories are considered: quantities of materials used, global warming potential (GWP), cumulative energy demand (CED) and road owner costs. Of all the materials and technologies considered, RA and RAP have the most positive effect on boosting more sustainable road construction and maintenance. The results of pavement scenarios show that combining materials and technologies evaluated in the study in a single pavement reduces GWP by 30.7%, CED by 25.0%, and costs by 17.9% compared to a pavement with virgin aggregates and asphalt manufacturing at hot mix asphalt temperatures. The need for raw materials in road pavement for all life cycle is significantly reduced by 45.8% for aggregates, 41.9% for bitumen, 100% for mineral filler, 50% for cement, and 100% for bitumen modifier. A total of 1446.6 tons of WFA, 20.5 tons of tire rubber, and 5.7 tons of kraft lignin can be incorporated into a 1 km section over the entire life cycle.


Keywords
Sustainable pavement, Crumb rubber, Fly ash, Recycled asphalt pavement, Lignin
DOI
10.1016/j.conbuildmat.2024.136522
Hyperlink
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0950061824016635?via%3Dihub

Riekstiņš, A., Haritonovs, V., Straupe, V., Īzaks, R., Merijs-Meri, R., Zicāns, J. Comparative Environmental and Economic Assessment of a Road Pavement Containing Multiple Sustainable Materials and Technologies. Construction and Building Materials, 2024, Vol. 432, Article number 136522. ISSN 0950-0618. e-ISSN 1879-0526. Available from: doi:10.1016/j.conbuildmat.2024.136522

Publication language
English (en)
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