Better Roads Digital Magazine
Issue link: https://read.dmtmag.com/i/96390
RoadScience Cold-in-place recycling of failed pavements optimizes use of in-place materials, relieving pressure on virgin aggregate extraction sites, on landfills, and greatly reduces truck trips with benefits to air quality, congestion, noise and reduced resource consumption. by Tom Kuennen, Contributing Editor Pre-Measure Your Carbon Footprint Calculators help predict the environmental impact of roadbuilding projects N ew tools keep appearing to help the highway, road and bridge community determine the environmental impact of the infrastructure they design and build. Last month we looked at the proliferation of environmental certi���cation programs available for highways (see Roadway Environmental Ratings:What���s Best for Your Agency?, November 2012, pp. 21-27). But in addition to these guidelines for a holistic summation of the environmental sustainability of a project, a plethora of environmental calculators now exist for a road builder to use in determining project sustainability in advance of construction. These software-based eco-calculators allow an array of variables or ���inputs��� about a project ��� such as dimensions, materials, quantities, haul distances and equipment ��� and kick out data such as quantities of carbon dioxide emitted in construction or over the life of a project, other emissions 18 December 2012 Better Roads and more. These data can provide a user with multiple paths to a sustainable project. In doing so a planner gets hard data projections he or she can use to justify or defend a project against those who would oppose it. These calculators can be used in advance by an agency to establish project fundamentals, by a contractor to pose environmental alternatives that will favor his capabilities, or by consulting engineers to assist their agency clients. For example, at the October semiannual meeting of the Asphalt Recycling & Reclaiming Association, Donald M. Matthews, P.E., of Pavement Recycling Systems in Riverside, Calif., said contractors can use the value engineering process ��� using environmental sustainability calculations ��� to suggest to clients that an alternate (in this case, cold-inplace recycling) could save time and money for a client. ���Use the calculations to suggest and prove that an alternative method will save an agency money, while providing