Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Framework For Developing
Framework For Developing
Framework For Developing
a r t i c l e i n f o
a b s t r a c t
Article history:
Received 28 September 2010
Received in revised form
13 June 2011
Accepted 11 August 2011
Available online 19 August 2011
Sustainable issues have been widely discussed in the construction industry in recent years. Although
some studies have examined sustainability, it is still difcult for engineering designers to incorporate
sustainable concepts into their work. The design stage is key in the life cycle to integrating sustainability
into construction projects. Therefore, practical methods and tools are needed to facilitate sustainability in
design work.
This study proposed a framework for developing sustainable items for highway design. Highwayrelated sustainable items were identied from a literature review of sustainable requirements and
highway project practices. Next, specic sustainable items were selected through interviews with
practitioners including designers, constructors, and maintenance owners. A checklist consisting of 60
technique and material sustainable items was created. Finally, the checklist was tested on four highway
design projects to check the applicability of the sustainable items.
The results show that over 52% of the 60 developed sustainable items were considered and 50%
incorporated into design. Designers can use the checklist as a tool to mark considered items, record manhours devoted to sustainability, and calculate the percentage of items incorporated. The framework can
narrow the gap between theoretical requirements and current design practices, thus leading construction projects toward sustainability.
2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Keywords:
Sustainability
Highway design
Construction projects
LEED
GRI
1. Introduction
Sustainable development in the construction industry has
become an important issue (Holton et al., 2010), but it seems to be
lagging behind other sectors. Myers (2005) reviewed the annual
reports of 42 construction companies in the UK and found little
information related to sustainability was disclosed, and relatively
few large companies changed their business paradigm. Chong et al.
(2009) surveyed over 200 civil engineers in the US, and nearly all
respondents regarded sustainability as important, but actual application and implementation by their organizations was extremely
low. Because of sustainability issues, Glass et al. (2008) indicated that
major changes related to materials, techniques, skills, and innovation
and management are needed in the construction industry.
The green building evaluation system such as the LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) is an initiative for
128
Sustainable requirements
Top down
LEED
GRI
Practitioner interviews
Designers, owners, and
constructors
AASHTO
compendium
Japan road
cases
Relevant
studies
Sustainable items
& Checklist
Taiwan road
cases
Bottom up
Construction design
practices
Fig. 1. Framework for developing sustainable items.
Test
129
130
131
132
Table 1
Developed sustainable items for highway design.
1. Geometrics & Alignments
1) Reduction in volume or weight
2) Mild curves
3) Mild slopes
2. Earthworks
1) Earthwork balance
2) Minimum excavation and lls
3) Topsoil recycling
5. Retaining walls
1) Reduction in volume or weight
2) Vegetation
3) Grinding stones or soft reinforcing
6. Slope protection
1) Vegetation
2) Reinforced slopes
3) Waste reuse (m)
8. Transportation facilities
1) Reduction in volume or weight
2) Multi-function poles
9. Transportation maintenance
1) Reduction in path changes
10. Bridges
1) Reduction in volume or weight
2) Long-span bridges
3) Pre-casting techniques
4) Temporary bridges for
construction
5) Hollow railings
difcult to attribute the 60 items to the sources after the items were
added, deleted or integrated in the selection process.
Sustainable items, such as reduction in volume or weight,
recycled materials, and culverts for wildlife crossings were found
frequently in previous studies and highway projects. The reason for
the frequency that they were found is probably due to shared
information among studies and reports.
12. Tunnels
1) Reduction in volume or weight
2) Vegetation
3) Reduction in ventilation facilities
4) Waste reuse (m)
5) Fiber materials (m)
13. Electrical & Mechanical work
1) Reduction in transportation controlling
facilities
14. Lighting
1) Reduction in lighting equipment
2) Renewable energy
Table 2
Sustainable items from requirements, design practices, and interviews.
Sustainable items
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
Sources
Sustainable requirements
Design practices
LEED
GRI
Studies
US
Japan
Taiwan
Practitioner interviews
Designers
Owners
Constructors
LEED Categories
SS
(14)
1. Geometrics &
Alignments
2. Earthworks
3. Pavement
4. Drainage
5. Retaining walls
6. Slope protection
7. Landscape & Ecology
8. Transportation facilities
9. Transportation
maintenance
10. Bridges
11. Sound insulation
12. Tunnels
13. Electrical &
Mechanical
work
14. Lighting
Total
4
5
6
3
3
12
2
1
1
2
4
2
1
12
1
0
10
2
5
1
1
1
2
WE
(3)
EA
(6)
MR
(8)
IEQ
(15)
ID
(2)
RP
(1)
2
30
3
1
1
0
1
1
1
60
133
Table 4
Sustainable items linking to GRI.
Highway design work
ENi
Material
(1w2)
1. Geometrics &
Alignments
2. Earthworks
3. Pavement
4. Drainage
5. Retaining walls
6. Slope protection
7. Landscape & Ecology
8. Transportation
facilities
9. Transportation
Maintenance
10. Bridges
11. Sound insulation
12. Tunnels
13. Electrical &
Mechanical
work
14. Lighting
Total
4
5
6
3
3
12
2
2
6
1
1
2
2
2
Energy
(3w7)
Water
(8w10)
Biodiversity
(11w15)
EEW
(16w25)
Product
&Service
(26w27)
Compliance
(28)
Transport
(29)
Overall
(30)
2
1
2
1
2
1
1
10
1
2
4
1
1
1
10
2
5
1
10
1
5
1
60
35
2
1
1
0
14
14
134
Table 5
Checklist format of sustainable items for highways.
Sustainable items
Considered
Techniques
Materials
Times
Man-hours
20
20
15
20
40
Yes
No
6) Regional
materials
Subtotal
Total
2004; Mid
zi
c-Kurtagi
c et al., 2010). As a qualitative tool, checklists
allow engineers and designers to document their experiences and
facilitate cooperation between work teams (Luttropp and
Lagerstedt, 2006). Most sustainable guidelines such as the LEED
rating system evaluate the sustainable performance of buildings
with checklists. The operationalization of the developed checklist
and sustainable items are also suggested by researchers (Ofori,
1998).
6. Project testing
To check its applicability, the established checklist was tested on
four roadway projects for four months in 2009 to validate that the
sustainable items can be adopted in highway design practices and
the checklist can be easily used by designers. The four chosen
construction projects included an elevated bridge road in a city,
a new road in a city, an expressway in a rural area, and a section of
highway and ramp, with contract amounts from US$270,000 to
US$5,630,000. The four projects were in the phases of planning,
design, preliminary design, and detailed design during testing.
Sustainability became a key issue for these projects. The owners of
the projects required designers to incorporate sustainability into
the designs. Data for considered items, times and man-hours are
summarized in Table 6.
Through monthly recorded checklists consisting of the 60 items
listed in Table 1, the designers working on projects A, B, C and D for
four months considered 54, 31, 49, and 46 items respectively, as
shown in Table 6. The percentage of items considered equals the
considered divided by total items. The percentage of items
considered for the four projects ranged from 52% to 90%. Over 50%
of the 60 developed sustainable items were considered by each
project. Furthermore, the percentages of items considered for
projects A and C were higher than 80%.
As can be seen in Table 6, the most considered items in the
projects were the landscape & ecology work. This is probably
because landscape and ecology work contains more items and,
furthermore, the words of landscape and ecology may be easier
to relate to sustainability. The zeros in the gray in Table 6 show
the disciplines that sustainability was not considered. Among the
14 disciplines, only three were not considered by project B
(including slope protection, sound insulation, and electrical and
mechanical works). Only one discipline (electrical & mechanical
work and tunnels, respectively) was not considered by projects C
and D.
Table 6
Results of project test.
Highway design work
Projects
A
Item
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
B
Times
Man hours
Item
C
Times
Man hours
Item
Times
Man hours
3
4
5
5
3
12
9
14
14
10
13
9
17
18
17
3
3
2
4
1
11
6
5
10
1
10
2
2
9
1
3
3
4
6
2
14
13
13
15
7
14
19
14
18.5
9
6. Slope protection
7. Landscape & Ecology
8. Transportation facilities
9. Transportation maintenance
10. Bridges
2
12
2
1
8
5
35
6
4
16
9
45
7
7
24
0
9
2
1
3
0
33
9
2
4
0
20.5
5.5
1
3
2
9
2
1
7
4
40
11
4
19
6
49
12
6
21
Item
Times
3
4
3
5
3
15
12
9
16
17
Man hours
25
13
16
26
33
2
11
2
1
7
8
49
7
4
21
12
57
10
6
28
12. Tunnels
13
15
1
3
54
3
44
148
6
20
202
0
2
31
0
4
89
0
4
62
0
3
49
0
7
164
0
12
200.5
1
3
46
3
6
170
3
13
245
90 (54/60)
52 (31/60)
82 (49/60)
77 (46/60)
135
136
McLellan, B.C., Corder, G.D., Giurco, D., Green, S., 2009. Incorporating sustainable
development in the design of mineral processing operations- review and
analysis of current approaches. Journal of Cleaner Production 17, 1414e1425.
Mid
zi
c-Kurtagi
c, S., Silajd
zi
c, I., Kupusovi
c, T., 2010. Mapping of environmental and
technological performance of food and beverage sector in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Journal of Cleaner Production 18, 1535e1544.
Myers, D., 2005. A review of construction companies attitudes to sustainability.
Construction Management and Economics 23 (8), 781e785.
National Research Council (NRC), 1991. Improving Engineering Design: Designing
for Competitive Advantage. National Academy Press, Washington, DC.
Ofori, G., 1998. Sustainable construction: principles and a framework for attainment-comment. Construction Management and Economics 16, 141e145.
Palme, U., Tillman, A.M., 2008. Sustainable development indicators: how are they
used in Swedish water utilities? Journal of Cleaner Production 16, 1346e1357.
Public Construction Commission (PCC), 2001. Establishing Design Specications and
Criteria for Green Highways. PCC, Taipei, Taiwan (in Chinese).
Spangenberg, J.H., Fuad-Luke, A., Blincoe, K., 2010. Design for sustainability (Dfs):
the interface of sustainable production and consumption. Journal of Cleaner
Production 18, 1485e1493.