Data-Driven Sustainability Assessment in Roadway Infrastructure Construction

Abstract

Rating systems and life cycle assessment frameworks have been extensively used to measure and evaluate the sustainability performance of roadway infrastructure. However, the existing literature lacks studies that use roadway construction data to evaluate the state of practice and establish performance benchmarks. To bridge the research gaps, this dissertation collected, organized, and analyzed data from 33 Greenroads-certified projects to establish the state of practice in sustainable roadway construction. Data from Greenroads scorecards are first analyzed to evaluate the most commonly pursued sustainable best practices and provide commentary on their level of achievement. This dissertation then conducts a pavement life cycle assessment (LCA) based on project submittals to Greenroads and integrates carbon and energy footprints into pay item lists to analyze correlations between the environmental impacts and financial costs of projects. A whole roadway LCA framework (one that considers all roadway elements beyond just pavements) is further developed and tested using actual construction data mined from 30 Greenroads-certified project documents. Finally, this dissertation introduces twelve data-driven sustainable performance benchmarks to establish the state of practice in roadway construction.