Assessing the environmental impacts of work zones in arterial improvement projects.

PDFTech ReportKLK900-SB-004DTRT12-G-UTC17Work zonesArterial highwaysEnvironmental impactsPavement maintenanceLife cycle analysisRigid pavementsFlexible pavementsRehabilitation (Maintenance)United StatesTranLIVE. University of IdahoSalem, OssamaSyracuse University. Dept. of Civil and Environmental EngineeringUnited States. Dept. of Transportation. Research and Innovative Technology AdministrationUS Transportation CollectionPreservation treatments help in extending the remaining service lives of pavements, but at the same time, theymay have substantial environmental impacts due to the acquisition of raw materials, transportation of the extractedmaterials, manufacturing of the final product, and the use of various equipment during the treatment process.Traditional and accelerated maintenance, repair and rehabilitation (MRR) techniques were identified for bothflexible and rigid pavements. Environmental impacts of the commonly used MRR strategies were calculated. Alife cycle assessment (LCA) approach was used, taking into account the life extension of the pavement for eachtype of strategy. The scope boundary included only the construction activities relevant to pavement MRR. LCAresults showed that for flexible pavements, accelerated rehabilitation techniques like partial or full depthreclamation have less life cycle environmental impacts than traditional techniques like milling and overlay or totalreconstruction. For rigid pavements, all the rehabilitation techniques are comparatively new. The environmentalimpacts were found to be similar for both traditional techniques like concrete full depth repair and acceleratedtechniques like precast concrete pavement systems. Minor treatment processes for both flexible and rigidpavements like fog seal, crack seal, concrete seal joints, diamond grinding, and concrete partial depth repair haveminimum impacts with maximum benefits when the corresponding life extensions are compared. The resultsobtained can assist highway construction management professionals to select environmentally sustainable MRRsolutions