Comparison Greenhouse Gas Emissions Due to Different Construction Techniques on Road Construction Project

Abstract

Alternative construction techniques are depending on conditions of each project such as the contractor’s ability to provide technologies. Their alternatives must be conforming to the quality and specification. Different resource consumptions and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions of the projects are their subsequence. This study aims to present and indicate the number of GHG emissions by using these alternatives, and recommends suitable genres of activities as the less GHG emissions by DOH criteria. The contractor is motivated to use suitable activities by paying benefits for participation in reducing GHG emissions on the road construction. The activities chosen for this study include 2 components: 1) base course layer and 2) wearing course layer. These two components give seven possible activities and they compose possible 12 combinations. The evaluation of GHG emissions is performed by using SimaPro 8.0 and resource consumption data from design documents. The key findings are that the activity (D) pavement recycling mix-in-place technique gives the least emission levels equal to 26,460 kgCO2-e/km. The activity (C) soil cement base mix-in-plant technique gives the most emission levels equal to 200,450 kgCO2-e/km. The fuel consumption in transportation gives a major contribution to the whole of emission levels. When comparing among twelve possible combinations, the combination no.1 gives the least emissions equal to 218,180 kgCO2-e/km. It comprises of the crushed rock base technique, pavement recycling mix-in-place technique and asphalt-concrete wearing-course technique. It is the suitable technique to recommend for the contractors. Finally, these findings can be used to build a tool for the voluntary emission reductions in the entire of road contractors.