Life cycle assessment in the environmental evaluation of pavement sections
- Carretera Magazine No. 214 - July / August 2017
Alberto MORAL QUIZA
Researcher in the Area of Sustainable Management
Centro Tecnológico CARTIF (47151 Valladolid - España)
ABSTRACT
Road infrastructure is linked to the socio-economic development of a country, being one important indicator in the development and welfare of it. These infrastructures imply an environmental impact associated to the energy and resources consumption. Although several approaches have tried to quantify the environmental impact of these infrastructures, in many cases the results are presented aggregated (black box approach), and do not transfer enough information in order to identify or quantify the different impacts generated by the different components of the infrastructure. This work tries to apply the Life Cycle Assessment to several pavement sections included in the Spanish Normative 6.1 I-C. Several environmental indicators have been used in order to determine and rank the environmental impacts associated to the pavement sections studied, taking into account the structural point of view, different life cycle stages, and the maintenance and end of life operations of the pavement.
KEYWORDS
Life Cycle Assessment, pavement sections, infrastructure sustainability.
