A practical tool for low-carbon road design and construction

Abstract

The Climate Change (Scotland) Act requires that public bodies ‘act in the way best calculated to deliver [Scotland's] emission reduction targets'. Transport Scotland, the infrastructure management and delivery agency of the Scottish government, commissioned Halcrow to develop a range of carbon dioxide footprinting and assessment tools known as the carbon management system (CMS). This paper presents, as a case study, the results of a recent pilot for the CMS road infrastructure projects tool to provide a transparent mechanism for reporting infrastructure project carbon dioxide emissions at construction stage. Two further case studies demonstrate how the tool informs carbon dioxide analysis and optimisation through design. These investigate the potential carbon benefits of ‘crack and seat' processes, the use of long-life pavement material and the need to carefully examine the transport implications of recycled content specifications, if the ultimate requirement is a ‘lower carbon' infrastructure solution. The case studies demonstrate the value of the CMS tools in integrating carbon considerations with civil engineering design, construction and reporting processes.

A Holistic Approach for Estimating Carbon Emissions of Road and Rail Transport Systems

“…In the last decade, many studies on LCA on road construction have been conducted worldwide (Muench, 2010). Generally, CO 2e emissions associated with the construction of road infrastructure have been estimated at 9-27 tCO 2e km -1 y -1 (EU Transport GHG, 2012).Transport Scotland's systemized approach to gathering data on emission-releasing activities and the subsequent estimation of operational and project carbon dioxide (Carbon management system (CMS)) (Fox et al, 2011).…”

Highway routine maintenance carbon dioxide emissions assessment

“…The study produced and presented a range of carbon accounting tools called a CMS (Fox et al, 2011). The case studies undertaken using the CMS demonstrate the analytical capabilities of the approach for highway carbon dioxide emissions assessment (Fox et al, 2011).…”

“…The study produced and presented a range of carbon accounting tools called a CMS (Fox et al, 2011). The case studies undertaken using the CMS demonstrate the analytical capabilities of the approach for highway carbon dioxide emissions assessment (Fox et al, 2011). However, the carbon information using the CMS is expressed in terms of carbon dioxide instead of carbon dioxide equivalent (CO 2 e) -a standard way of showing that the carbon dioxide emissions analysed include all the six greenhouse gases (GHGs) defined by the Kyoto Protocol and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).…”

“…These opportunities suggest a projectfocused and process-based life-cycle methodological approach should be developed, which should also improve on the existing carbon calculation methodologies such as the Highways Agency (Highways Agency, 2008) and Transport Scotland (Fox et al, 2011) carbon calculation methodologies. This approach will ensure that relevant carbon sources (e.g.…”

Estimation of carbon dioxide emission in highway construction: a case study in southwest region of China

“…Park et al (2003) assessed the environmental impacts of highways in life cycle. Fox et al (2011) introduced a pilot result of carbon management system for road projects applied in Scotland. Tsai et al (2012) proposed a framework for developing sustainable items for highway design.…”