TY - JOUR
T1 - Carbon Footprint Estimation in Road Construction
T2 - La Abundancia–Florencia Case Study
AU - Espinoza, Marianela
AU - Campos, Noelia
AU - Yang, Rebekah
AU - Ozer, Hasan
AU - Aguiar-Moya, José P.
AU - Baldi, Alejandra
AU - Loría-Salazar, Luis G.
AU - Al-Qadi, Imad L
N1 - Funding Information:
The present study is based on the results obtained during the analysis carried out by TEST, Inc. Special thanks extend to the companies Constructora Herrera and Eurofinsa for the information provided to carry out the study.This research received no external funding.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2019 by the authors.
Copyright:
Copyright 2019 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved.
PY - 2019/4/16
Y1 - 2019/4/16
N2 - The environmental impact of road construction and rehabilitation can be associated with the increase of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, which are highly related to climate change. Consequently, departments of transportation have recently focused on the development and implementation of tools to evaluate the performance of projects and minimize GHG emissions. An example is the use of life cycle assessment (LCA) to analyze and quantify the environmental impact of a product, system, or process, from cradle to grave. In this regard, the present case study quantifies the carbon footprint associated with the construction of the La Abundancia-Florencia highway, located in the province of San Carlos in Costa Rica. The analysis is also intended to generate consciousness both in the public and private sectors on the environmental impacts of road construction. After an LCA study, it was determined that the construction of the hot mix asphalt (HMA) layer generates a carbon footprint of 65.8 kg of CO2e per km of road. In addition, it was evident that HMA production generates the greatest environmental impact, among all the considered LCA production and construction stages, with a GHG contribution of 38% to 39% from bitumen only. Consequently, special attention to HMA production is required in order to minimize GHG emissions.
AB - The environmental impact of road construction and rehabilitation can be associated with the increase of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, which are highly related to climate change. Consequently, departments of transportation have recently focused on the development and implementation of tools to evaluate the performance of projects and minimize GHG emissions. An example is the use of life cycle assessment (LCA) to analyze and quantify the environmental impact of a product, system, or process, from cradle to grave. In this regard, the present case study quantifies the carbon footprint associated with the construction of the La Abundancia-Florencia highway, located in the province of San Carlos in Costa Rica. The analysis is also intended to generate consciousness both in the public and private sectors on the environmental impacts of road construction. After an LCA study, it was determined that the construction of the hot mix asphalt (HMA) layer generates a carbon footprint of 65.8 kg of CO2e per km of road. In addition, it was evident that HMA production generates the greatest environmental impact, among all the considered LCA production and construction stages, with a GHG contribution of 38% to 39% from bitumen only. Consequently, special attention to HMA production is required in order to minimize GHG emissions.
KW - Asphalt mixtures
KW - Carbon footprint
KW - Emissions
KW - GHG
KW - Life cycle analysis
KW - Road
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U2 - 10.3390/su11082276
DO - 10.3390/su11082276
M3 - Article
SN - 2071-1050
VL - 11
JO - Sustainability (Switzerland)
JF - Sustainability (Switzerland)
IS - 8
M1 - 2276
ER -