2013 Session: 705

• Evaluating Sustainability of Face Bricks for Road and Airfield Pavements
  Abstract: The U.S. Army Engineer Research and Development Center evaluated the feasibility of using face bricks as an alternative to concrete or asphalt paving for lightweight and heavyweight vehicle traffic. Paving materials and equipment can be scarce in expeditionary environments, so the use of bricks recycled from existing infrastructure may provide a local resource for constructing pavements suitable for meeting the military’s mission requirements. The field testing documented in this paper follows a laboratory study in which a series of tests, including compressive strength, absorption, Los Angeles abrasion, and specific gravity, were conducted on selected face bricks and brick pavers. The success of the laboratory testing led to the full-scale field testing and evaluation of the face and paver bricks trafficked with a commercial dump truck load of approximately 54,000 lb (24 494 kg) and then trafficked with a 45,000-lb (20 412-kg) single-wheel C-17 aircraft load cart. The field testing indicated brick-paved roads constructed with a moderately high-strength base are capable of sustaining more than 10,000 passes of truck traffic without failure. The same brick-paved roads were not capable of withstanding C-17 aircraft traffic. Further results from the evaluation are presented and include material characterization test data, rut depth measurements, wheel path and cross-section profile measurements, instrumentation response data, and forensic assessments. Recommendations for continuing the study through the use of additional full-scale test sections are also provided.
  Authors: Bell, Haley P.; Edwards, Lulu
  Authors: Bell, Haley P.; Edwards, Lulu
  Year: 2013
  Document Type: Paper
  Subject: Design; Environment; Pavements
  Session: 705
  Paper Number: 13-2905
• Toward Sustainable Pavement Management: Incorporating Environmental Impacts of Pavement Treatments into Performance-Based Optimization
  Abstract: Transportation asset management systems are concerned with the daunting task of maintenance and upgrade of infrastructures while restricted by annual budgets. However, the consideration of environmental impacts is normally left out of the analysis. This paper incorporates environmental impacts of maintenance and rehabilitation of pavements into the strategic planning. It explicitly considers greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and energy usage from such activities and conducts a performance-based optimization. It follows a three-step tradeoff process: finding minimum requirement of annual budget, maximizing condition and reducing environmental impacts. The results show that considering environmental impacts in the strategic planning returns a substantial gain in energy savings and GHG emissions reduction although a small sacrifice in pavement performance is required. It reduces energy usage and GHG emissions by 19 percent and 24 percent, respectively, while pavement condition drops slightly to 98.5 percent of optimal solution.
  Authors: Faghih-Imani, Ahmadreza; Amador-Jimenez, Luis
  Authors: Faghih-Imani, Ahmadreza; Amador-Jimenez, Luis
  Year: 2013
  Document Type: Paper
  Subject: Design; Environment; Pavements
  Session: 705
  Paper Number: 13-3154
• Environmental Analysis of Asphalt Pavement Maintenance Using Modified Binders in Developing Countries: Case Study in Bogotá, Colombia
  Abstract: This study presents an environmental analysis of four maintenance alternatives for a case study to be conducted in Bogotá, Colombia. The study involves a conventional hot-mix asphalt (CHMA), a polymer-modified hot mix with styrene butadiene styrene (PM-SBS) and two crumb rubber asphalt mixes, asphalt rubber dense-graded (AR-DG), and asphalt rubber gap-graded (AR-GG). This paper presents an analyzes of the environmental impacts of these maintenance options by using the Eco-indicator99 as a life-cycle inventory -tool (LCIT). The analysis is complemented by estimations of the global-warming potential (GWP) index and energy consumption of each option. Two scenarios and their environmental impacts were considered: using 1) heating oil (HO) or 2) natural gas (NG) as fuel for drying and mixing in an asphalt plant. Also, the binder transportation was analyzed with the consideration that, in Colombia, there are only two national refineries with binder production to cover the country demand. The impacts of a polymer-modified plant (PMP) and the tire-shredding process were considered as well. The results showed that the production of materials contributed roughly 55% to 65% of environmental load (EL), and heating aggregates contributed almost 29% of EL. Maintenance conducted using AR-GG was considered the more eco-efficient option with the lowest EL, on the other hand AR-DG, and PM-SBS showed to have similar EL.
  Authors: Martinez-Arguelles, Gilberto; Crispino, Maurizio; Giustozzi, Filippo; Flintsch, Gerardo W.
  Authors: Martinez-Arguelles, Gilberto; Crispino, Maurizio; Giustozzi, Filippo; Flintsch, Gerardo W.
  Year: 2013
  Document Type: Paper
  Subject: Design; Environment; Pavements
  Session: 705
  Paper Number: 13-3475
• Project Emissions Estimator (Pe-2): Tool to Aid Contractors and Agencies in Assessing Greenhouse Gas Emissions of Highway Construction Projects
  Abstract: Motivated by the need to address challenges of global climate change, this study develops and implements a project based life cycle framework that can be used to estimate the carbon footprint for typical construction work-items found in reconstruction, rehabilitation and Capital Preventive Maintenance (CPM) projects. Applying existing life cycle assessment methods and inventories, the proposed framework considers the life cycle emissions of products and processes involved in the raw material acquisition and manufacturing phase, and the pavement construction phase. It also estimates emissions due to vehicular use and maintenance operations during the service life of the pavements. An implementation of the framework is a web-based tool, the Project Emission Estimator (PE-2) that can be used to benchmark the CO2 footprint of highway construction projects. The research suggests ways of implementing PE-2 tool by contractors and state transportation agencies to benchmark and help reduce the CO2 footprint of highway construction projects.
  Authors: Mukherjee, Amlan; Stawowy, Brian
  Authors: Mukherjee, Amlan; Stawowy, Brian
  Year: 2013
  Document Type: Paper
  Subject: Design; Environment; Pavements
  Session: 705
  Paper Number: 13-2855
  Practice-Ready: Yes
• Toward Sustainable Pavement Management: Incorporating Environmental Impacts of Pavement Treatments into Performance-Based Optimization
  Authors: Amador-Jimenez, Luis
  Authors: Amador-Jimenez, Luis
  Year: 2013
  Document Type: Presentation
  Subject: Design; Environment; Pavements
  Session: 705
  Paper Number: 13-3154
• Environmental Analysis of Asphalt Pavement Maintenance Using Modified Binders in Developing Countries: Case Study in Bogota, Colombia
  Authors: Martinez-Arguelles, Gilberto
  Authors: Martinez-Arguelles, Gilberto
  Year: 2013
  Document Type: Presentation
  Subject: Design; Environment; Pavements
  Session: 705
  Paper Number: 13-3475
• Project Emissions Estimator (Pe-2): Tool to Aid Contractors and Agencies in Assessing Greenhouse Gas Emissions of Highway Construction Projects
  Authors: Mukherjee, Amlan
  Authors: Mukherjee, Amlan
  Year: 2013
  Document Type: Presentation
  Subject: Design; Environment; Pavements
  Session: 705
  Paper Number: 13-2855
• Evaluating Sustainability of Face Bricks for Road and Airfield Pavements
  Authors: Bell, Haley
  Authors: Bell, Haley
  Year: 2013
  Document Type: Presentation
  Subject: Design; Environment; Pavements
  Session: 705
  Paper Number: 13-2905