01661629

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As the infrastructure industry moves towards adopting Environmental Product Declarations (EPD) as instruments for communicating environmental impacts of products and processes, there is a growing need to develop methods that support the informed use of mid-point impact indicators such as Global Warming Potential (GWP) in the design decision-making process. This research presents a framework that will aid decision-makers to inform the design of pavement systems by explicitly accounting for performance requirements, and environmental impact indicators associated with a product or process at different life cycle stages. It develops a method that departs from a trade-off based approach towards embracing a life cycle thinking approach, through inclusion of relevant life cycle flows that can offset trade-off margins. An illustration of the framework is provided for the design of a benchmark asphalt mixture, considering its GWP, Reclaimed Asphalt Pavement (RAP) content and its Thermal Cracking (TC) performance. The outcomes of the analysis provide decision-makers with guidelines on margins of tolerance, and indicates the possibility of identifying equivalent functionalities (for GWP and TC) across designs with varying RAP content. The framework is expected to be extensible and capable of building on existing LCA frameworks and mechanistic-empirical models. As EPDs become part of the decision-making process, this method can provide decision-makers guidelines to avoid trade-offs between performance and environmental impacts, instead emphasizing control over associated life cycle flows.

This paper was sponsored by TRB committee AFD30 Standing Committee on General and Emerging Pavement Design. Alternate title: From Trade-Offs to Equivalent Solutions: A Life-Cycle Thinking Informed Approach to Design Decision Making

18-05122

English

6p

2018

Transportation Research Board 97th Annual Meeting

Digital/other

Figures; References

Alternatives analysis; Asphalt mixtures; Decision making; Environmental impacts; Global warming; Guidelines; Life cycle analysis; Pavement design; Pavement performance; Reclaimed asphalt pavements; Thermal degradation

Environmental Product Declaration

Design; Environment; Highways; Materials; Pavements

Transportation Research Board Annual Meeting 2018 Paper #18-05122

TRIS, TRB, ATRI

Jan 8 2018 11:17AM