0000000000228139
AUTHOR
Filippo Giammaria Praticò
Energy and Environmental Life Cycle Assessment of asphalt pavements: A Scenario Analysis for Urban Roads
This paper aims at calculating the life-cycle energy and the environmental impacts pertaining to roads management, including materials production, transportation, construction, maintenance, and rehabilitation. A life-cycle approach is applied to assess energy and environmental impacts of a typical Italian urban road, according to the ISO 14040 series. In more detail, the Authors assess the energy and environmental profile of different optimized scenarios of bituminous mixtures. The aim of scenario analysis is to identify the less impacting scenario from an energy and environmental point of view. For each analysed scenario, the contribution of each life-cycle step to the total impacts and th…
Measuring the Sustainability of Transportation Infrastructures Through Comparative Life Cycle and Energy Assessment
The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development was adopted at the United Nations Sustainable Development Summit on 25 September 2015. It addresses people, planet and prosperity needs and particularly focuses on transport systems that must be 1) Sustainable. 2) Quality and resilient. 3) Safe. 4) Affordable and accessible. The Research Project PRIN USR342 focuses on similar concepts and the expected outputs are 3 paving solutions (made with recycled materials and sustainable technologies), 4 sets of modules (software), and 2 platforms. In this view, the objective of this study is the identification of the best pavement technology in terms of energy and environmental performance. To this aim a LC…
Quality-control procedure for dry-process rubberised asphalt mastics
Crumb Rubber (CR) can be incorporated into asphalt mixes via the dry process by directly adding CR into the mixer together with other asphalt mixture’s components, or with the wet process where the CR is used as a bitumen modifier. While the wet process allows an accurate monitoring of the interaction between CR and bitumen, the lack of control represents a main issue in the dry process. In fact, in the latter the CR particles keep swelling during hauling and possibly also after paving operations, often causing workability issues and premature failures. This study wants to provide a methodology that could help quality control procedures of bitumen/filler/rubber systems during mixing, haulin…
A new and simplified approach to assess the pavement surface micro- and macrotexture
Abstract Road safety depends on pavement skid resistance and surface texture. Skid resistance mainly depends on micro-texture and macrotexture. Skid and texture measurements on samples, in the laboratory, at the preliminary stage of the design, would enhance the design in terms of timing, costs, and reliability. Consequently, this study aims at setting up and validating simple methods for assessing surface texture and skid resistance based on core/sample measurements. Experiments were carried out and predictive relationships were set up to explain and predict results. Under given conditions, miniaturised macro-and microtexture tests (modified EN 13036-1 and modified EN 13036-4, respectively…
In-lab versus on-site measurement of surface performance of flexible pavements
Road safety is one of the major problems which affect our society. Skid resistance mainly depends on a pavement surface microtexture and macrotexture. Macrotexture can be easily measured on site through the Sand Patch method (mean texture depth, MTD, UNI EN 13036-1, ASTM E 965, CNR B.U. 94/83). Carrying out the measurements above on the samples, in the laboratory, at the preliminary stage of the design of the pavement, would enhance the design in terms of timing and costs. In the light of the above, the objective of the study presented in this paper is to set up and validate a method for deriving the sand patch value based on core measurements. A Predictive relationship is proposed in terms…
A life cycle scenario analysis of different pavement technologies for urban roads.
In the past, lowest price was the award criterion, given that structural capacity and safety were assured. In the last years, environmental, energy, and long-term impacts have been introduced (climate change, resource depletion, energy consumption, generated solid waste, discharged water, and emissions). Unfortunately, the introduction of new pavement technologies and materials (i.e., waste plastics) affects maintenance and rehabilitation processes and call for accurate and timeliness studies and criteria. Consequently, this paper presents an energy and environmental assessment of an Italian urban road and considers different material-related scenarios that fully comply with emerging techno…
Photoluminescent Road Coatings for Open-Graded and Dense-Graded Asphalts: Theoretical and Experimental Investigation
AbstractRoad safety builds on traffic and driver–infrastructure interaction: nighttime visibility represents a key-aspect of this complex interaction. Therefore, providing an adequate road lighting...
Impact of Asphalt Mixture Specification Limits: A Theoretical Analysis
AbstractSpecifications limits and tolerances are crucial in the relationships among contractor, road agency, and citizens because they influence profits, acceptance procedures, and pavement durabil...
Modelling pavement surface characteristics for noise prediction through Bailey-related indicators
The aggregate gradation of bituminous mixtures (hot mix asphalts, HMA) is one of the major factors affecting their surface texture. In turn, this latter is a crucial factor and influences drivers and bystanders’ safety, comfort, and health. Despite this, the design of texture levels still lacks sound bases and dedicated algorithms and this negatively affects the acoustic design of bituminous mixtures. Consequently, the objectives of this study were confined into the derivation of relationships to be used in mix design to predict texture levels. Experimental data were analyzed, in the pursuit of setting up appropriate models and algorithms. Analyses involved the consideration of Bailey-relat…
Environmental sustainability and energy assessment of bituminous pavements made with unconventional materials
The increasing sensibility towards the questions related to climate change has made the scientists and technicians aware of the need to incorporate the principles of sustainable development into the road construction sector. In this view, recycled materials in road pavements and technologies to decrease the overall carbon footprint have become more and more important. Based on the ISO14040 series, the overall purpose of this study is calculating, by means of a systemic approach, the life-cycle energy and the carbon footprint of road pavement solutions. To this aim, several alternatives in terms of bituminous mixtures (warm mix asphalt, reclaimed asphalt pavements, waste plastics) were consi…
Issues and Perspectives in the Application of Different Pavement Design Methods to Life Cycle Cost Analysis
Life cycle costs analysis (LCCA) is an economic evaluation tool that can provide valuable guidance to transportation officials in management decision process. The application of LCCA to pavement management is vital because it permits the selection of the best alternative, based on the analysis of agency costs and user costs, taking into account (after selecting pavement type) different maintenance and rehabilitation (M&R) strategies within the same pavement type. Additionally, environmental costs can be considered. Issues arise when comparing the expected life of the pavement derived according to different pavement design tools, such as the Mechanistic-Empirical pavement Design Guide (M…
Asphalt mixtures modified with basalt fibres for surface courses
Abstract This paper shows the results of an experimental study concerning the effect of introduction of basalt fibres in asphalt mixtures for surface course, mainly with regard to those to be used in urban areas, for dedicated bus lanes. Surface layers, where tire-pavement interactions occur, have to provide different properties such as high friction (very important for users’ safety), stability, resistance to meteorological agents, and contribution to the overall pavement performances. Considering that basalt fibres provide considerable physical and mechanical properties and above all high abrasion resistance, scope of the study is to evaluate the effects of these fibres on mixtures proper…