Rolling resistance contribution to a road pavement life cycle carbon footprint analysis

Abstract

Purpose Although the impact of road pavement surface condition on rolling resistance has been included in the life cycle assessment (LCA) framework of several studies in the last years, there is still a high level of uncertainty concerning the methodological assumptions and the parameters that can affect the results. In order to adopt pavement carbon footprint/ LCA as a decision-making tool, it is necessary to explore the impact of the chosen methods and assumptions on the LCA results. Methods This paper provides a review of the main models describing the impact of the pavement surface properties on vehicle fuel consumption and analyses the influence of the methodological assumptions related to the rolling resistance on the LCA results. It compares the CO 2 emissions, calculated with two different rolling resistance models existing in literature, and performs a sensitivity test on some specific input variables (pavement deterioration rate, traffic growth, and emission factors/fuel efficiency improvement).Results and discussion The model used to calculate the impact of the pavement surface condition on fuel consumption significantly affects the LCA results. The pavement deterioration rate influences the calculation in both models, while traffic growth and fuel efficiency improvement have a limited impact on the vehicle CO 2 emissions resulting from the pavement condition contribution to rolling resistance. Conclusions and recommendationsExisting models linking pavement condition to rolling resistance and hence vehicle emissions are not broadly applicable to the use phase of road pavement LCA and further research is necessary before a widely-used methodology can be defined. The methods of modelling and the methodological assumptions need to be transparent in the analysis of the impact of the pavement surface condition on fuel consumption, in order to be interpreted by decision makers and implemented in an LCA framework. This will be necessary before product category rules (PCR) for pavement LCA can be extended to include the use phase.

Flexible Pavements and Climate Change: A Comprehensive Review and Implications

“…For example, a "do nothing" maintenance strategy will lead to lower maintenance GHG emissions from materials and plants compared to a "do something" option. However, the "do nothing" strategy may lead to poorer highway serviceability, e.g., rolling resistance due to pavement roughness, or skid resistance [131,132]. This can cause higher user vehicle emissions in the operation phase, which can dominate the total life-cycle GHG emissions [133].…”

Environmental impact assessment of induction-healed asphalt mixtures

“…Only leaching, maintenance and congestion modules have been considered in the analysis due to the lack of useful data to compare aspects like the roughness of the asphalt mixtures and also the variability of the results from the existing rolling resistance models (Trupia et al, 2017).…”

Determination of the Rolling Resistance Coefficient Under Different Traffic Conditions

“…The most significant aspect of the way in which the road has an impact on traffic accidents lies in the fact that it affects both the driver and the vehicle [1,2], creates conditions for the influence of other factors, affects the severity of traffic accidents and, at the same time, determines the circumstances of traffic flow. Within the scope of transportation, a special place is taken by ecological impact on people and the environment [3] in which transportation is carried out, where, according to Trupia [4], one of the factors is the rolling resistance coefficient. The improvement of this impact can be achieved by reducing the levels of negative effects of influencing factors in the movement of motor vehicles.…”