Transportation Research Part D 34 (2015) 41–51

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Transportation Research Part D

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/trd

Environmentally appraising different pavement and

construction scenarios: A comparative analysis for a typical
local road
Clara Celauro a,⇑, Ferdinando Corriere b, Marco Guerrieri b, Barbara Lo Casto b
a
DICAM – Dipartimento di Ingegneria Civile, Ambientale, Aerospaziale e dei Materiali, Scuola Politecnica, Università degli Studi di Palermo, Palermo, Italy
b
DEIM – Dipartimento di Energia, Ingegneria dell’Informazione e Modelli Matematici, Scuola Politecnica, Università degli Studi di Palermo, Palermo, Italy

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Keywords: The aim of this work is to carry out a comparative analysis of environmental impacts for
Life Cycle Assessment different scenarios of a typical local road. Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) is the modeling tool
Road pavement used to quantify and characterize comparative environmental impacts. In carrying out this
Recycled asphalt pavements specific application of the LCA, different road construction techniques were considered
Soil stabilization
with regards to the whole structure and compared in order to identify the best alternative
in terms of environmental sustainability.
So far, in fact, typical LCA frameworks of roads have focused on recycled materials for
pavement layers only, thus neglecting study of the materials used in the embankment or
in the subgrade. In this study, these materials were included too, in order to prove the envi-
ronmental benefit of using a sustainable technique such as in situ stabilization of fine soils
with lime (typically dumped clayey soils) in order to reduce the need for virgin material for
embankment and subgrade construction.
When using different percentages of recycled materials (such as reclaimed asphalt pave-
ment – RAP) in the bituminous layer or in the foundation, the analysis of the functional unit
studied shows a significant reduction of energy consumption and pollutant emissions
mainly due to transportation of materials involved, in this way increasing the environmen-
tal performance of the road.
Another important consideration is that the use of fine soils stabilized with lime ‘‘in situ’’,
instead of dumping it, not only is a good technical solution for improving soil mechanical
properties, but it also produces a reduction of energy consumption and of pollutant emis-
sions. It is noticeable that this technique results in a significant reduction of pollutant
emissions due the transportation of involved materials, increasing the environmental
performance of the road.
Ó 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Introduction

Transportation infrastructures represent key elements for characterizing the level of development (Herranz-Loncán,
2007; Rietveld, 1994) and welfare (Knaap and Oosterhaven, 2011) of a given country. Although balance and coordination

⇑ Corresponding author at: DICAM – Dipartimento di Ingegneria Civile, Ambientale, Aerospaziale e dei Materiali, Università degli Studi di Palermo, Viale
delle Scienze al Parco d’Orleans, Edificio 8, 90128 Palermo, Italy.
E-mail address: clara.celauro@unipa.it (C. Celauro).

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.trd.2014.10.001
1361-9209/Ó 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
42 C. Celauro et al. / Transportation Research Part D 34 (2015) 41–51

among different transportation means are normal concerns of planners (Sonstegaard, 1992), roads must be considered lead-
ing components of transport infrastructures, since they are responsible for a remarkable portion of the whole mobility of
people and freights.
With increasing concern about planet environmental constraints, transportation scenarios are turning toward greener
features (Girod et al., 2013) This is very evident in approaches to road design, maintenance and management (Fürst and
Oberhofer, 2012; Oxley et al., 2012). This new concern has also resulted in a large number of researches and studied devoted
to evaluate the environmental impact of road infrastructures (Barros et al., 2013; Mayer et al., 2012) mainly based on clas-
sical or hybrid LCA approaches (Eriksson et al., 1996; Huang et al., 2009b; Milachowski et al., 2011; Santero et al., 2011b,
2011c). More general visions are also considered in the assessment of the pressure exerted by roads on the natural environ-
ment, ranging from climate change analyses (Stanley et al., 2011), to ecosystem preservation, with frequent attention to
sustainability footprint impacts (Amekudzi et al., 2009).
However, due to the intrinsic complexity of such analyses, the role of materials constituting infrastructures and their
maintenance is usually separated from evaluations regarding the impact of vehicles moving on them. Some studies try to
approach the question in an integrated way, introducing the need to include the supply chain in the analysis of passenger
transportation or providing an LCA analysis (Milachowski et al., 2011; Mroueh et al., 2001) of a generic motorway with a
hypothetical traffic flow of cars and heavy goods vehicles affected by standard fuel consumption, considered as the European
average for this kind of vehicles. However, these studies do not take in account the effects of the traffic delay induced by
maintenance operations (Santero et al., 2011a) and do not properly consider emissions from the vehicles for which the roads
have been designed and realized in a given territorial and traffic context.
Currently, contractors, policy planners and road management organizations are interested in reliable but manageable
methods for assessing the overall environmental pressure exerted by roads in their operative configurations, that is taking
into account the impact of materials for road construction, operations related to the maintenance and emissions from the
vehicle flow. This approach could enable policy-makers to compare different scenarios at the design stage and/or introduce
remediation actions that could suitably modify the overall environmental performances of road infrastructures.
On the other hand, when undertaking an environmental impact assessment analysis of such infrastructures there is often
scarce availability of primary data concerning the embodied energy pertinent to and the pollutant emissions released by the
materials constituting the analyzed roads. The fact is that these material could either be absent in the current database on
which the LCA procedures rely or refer to working chains that are significantly different from those of the materials involved.
For example, a frequent case is that of materials for which data have been obtained in other countries with different
operations concerning the extraction, production and transportation phases.
With the aim of making a contribution to overcoming these problems, in this work an integrated method of evaluation of
the whole impact of road infrastructures is proposed that, in addition the materials constituting the infrastructure and the
maintenance operations, at the same time accounts for the traffic flow foreseen in the design phase for the road considered.
Pollutant emissions are computed on the basis of the European defined categories of vehicles (in the Corinair database)
(Eggleston et al., 1991).
Moreover, for evaluating the impact of materials for which databases are lacking, an indirect method of evaluation is
proposed, based on the amount and types of energy sources involved in the working chain of these materials.
In this way, an eco-profile of the operative conditions of roads is drawn, constituting the integrated parameter of the
whole environmental performance of the considered road.

Methodology

The environmental impact of a road is measured by the aggregation of impacts over its life cycle, beginning with extrac-
tion of raw materials and culminating in various end-of-life scenarios (Santero, 2010).
This work aims at quantifying the environmental impacts of a typical Italian rural road using an LCA methodology accord-
ing to ISO 14040 and ISO 14044 (ISO, 2006a, 2006b). By definition, an LCA study comprises four phases which affect one
another (Fig. 1): goal and scope definition, inventory analysis, impact assessment and interpretation.
The goal and scope definition determines the guidelines to be followed during the rest of the study by specifying the rea-
son for conducting the study, the intended use of the results, intended audience, the system boundaries, the functional unit,
the data requirements and the study limitations (Vidal et al., 2013). In the inventory analysis (LCI) all the inputs (energy and
resource requirements) and the outputs (environmental emissions) are collected and defined. In the assessment phase, the
environmental effects of the system components are assigned to different impact categories. In the final phase the results are
interpreted and evaluated in order to obtain deductions and to provide some recommendations.
Different road construction techniques (with regards to both the pavement and the subgrade) were considered and
compared in order to identify the best alternative in terms of environmental sustainability.
The scenarios analyzed includes road construction techniques based on the use of virgin material only, reuse of discarded
materials (such as Recycled Asphalt Pavement, RAP) as well as in situ stabilization with lime of fine-grained soils.
In particular, lime stabilization of clayey soils (otherwise unsuitable to be used for construction purposes) was selected
for this study since it is not only a good technical solution for improving soil strength and stiffness properties (Celauro et al.,
2012a, 2012b), but, due to the volumes of material involved in construction, maintenance and rehabilitation of
 C. Celauro et al. / Transportation Research Part D 34 (2015) 41–51 43

Goal definition and

scoping

Inventory Analysis Interpretation

Impact Assessment

Fig. 1. Life Cycle Assessment framework (based on ISO 14040 (ISO, 2006a,b)).

transportation infrastructures, it allows the preservation of a considerable amount of natural resources, such as aggregates.
Moreover, this technique reduces the need to transport virgin materials to construction sites and waste material to
the dump.
Selection of the type of road to be studied was carried out considering that in Italy there are 172,356 km of sub-urban
roads and 6,668 km of motorway, the distribution between North and South not being homogeneous (see Table 1).
As can be noticed from Table 1, the sub-urban road (two-lane single carriageway) is by far the most common in Italy. For
this type of road, both the cross-section in embankment and in excavation were considered when detailing the inventory
phase of each scenario considered. Comparison of the results was carried out using a dedicate LCA tool.

LCA tool

The data were evaluated with the LCA tool ‘‘PaLATE’’, Pavement Life Cycle Assessment Tool for Environmental and
Economic Effects. This is an Excel-based tool for pavement LCA model. The tool is able to represent the pavement life cycle
by including material extraction, production, construction, maintenance and end of life phases. PaLATE’s environmental
results incorporate energy and water consumption, global warming potential (GWP), human toxicity potential (HTP), several
of air pollutant and hazardous waste generated.
PaLATE makes use of a life-cycle assessment framework that draws on engineering, environmental and economic infor-
mation and data to evaluate the use of virgin and recycled materials in the construction and maintenance of pavements that
use different percentages of virgin and recycled materials in the subgrade/sub-base and wearing course layers (Horvath and
Hendrickson, 1998).
The principal characteristics of PaLATE are its analytical structure, flexibility and transparency. The analytical structure
allows one to explore and to study each phase separately and independently. Flexibility allows to go over the problem of
application in different countries (due to the different pavement materials, construction and maintenance techniques and
so on), in the sense that users may make some changes in the tool according to their needs. Flexibility is achieved through
the design of the model and transparency of the programming and user interface. Transparency is one of the essential ele-
ments of LCA (Huang et al., 2009a), in the sense that a user or a reviewer of the model will know the origin of the data in the
model and the assumption that have been made in the calculations. All these characteristics of PaLATE are fundamental for
the approach selected for this work.

Table 1
Italian road distribution (MIT, 2012).

Sub-urban (km) 172,356

Motorway (km) 6,668
km Sub-urban for 10,000 inhabitants 28.30
km motorway for 10,000 inhabitants 1.09
km Sub-urban for 100 km2 59.84
km Motorway for 100 km2 2.21
km Sub-urban for 10,000 vehicles 46.24
km motorway for 10,000 vehicles 1.80
44 C. Celauro et al. / Transportation Research Part D 34 (2015) 41–51

Case study

System description

For the purpose of the proposed paper, a road length of 1 km was assumed as the functional unit of analysis. The LCA
analysis was carried out with the PaLATE software on a typical Italian two-lane rural road (two-lane single carriageway),
having a lane width of 3.50 m and paved shoulders of 1.25 m each (foreslopes rounding of 1.50 m width were also considered
adjacent to the paved shoulders) (AASHTO, 2011).
In order to consider as many different possible types of materials, equipment and construction processes typically
involved in road construction, the road sections in embankment and in excavation were considered. The distance between
the natural ground surface and the pavement surface (in the centreline) was set equal to 2.25 m for the cross-section in
embankment (with a body of the embankment 1.00 m high) and to 1.00 m for the cut section cross-section. In both cases,
the pavement structure was of a flexible type, i.e. composed of three layers in bituminous mixtures (wearing course, binder
course and base course), over a granular sub-base course, as detailed in Tables 2 and 3.
In the literature, with regards to the material used for the whole road structure, many LCA studies focus on pavement
materials only, such as asphalt or concrete mixtures (Praticò et al., 2010; Praticò and Vaiana, 2013), though a few also
consider/examine granular material for use in the sub-base. There are only a very few studies that include analysis of the
material used for subgrade (Praticò et al., 2011) or embankment construction, which is usually neglected.
In this work, the analysis of both the embankment and the subgrade was considered crucial and therefore included in
detail, due to the very large amount of materials typically involved in their construction and the related need for
transportation.
As far as the analysis period is concerned, this was set equal to 30 years after the initial construction, in accordance to the
guidelines for Cost-Benefit Analysis of the European Commission (Regio, 2008) for this type of infrastructure, since this can
be considered as a period where many of the factors that affect the service life of a road are predictable with good estimation.
The scenarios studied included the use of Recycled Asphalt Pavement (RAP) and stabilization with lime in situ of the
existing soils, in order to improve soil performances.
From the combination of different amounts of virgin, recycled and improved materials a comparison study was
carried out for the embankment and cut sections, on a total of 15 different scenarios as detailed in the following tables
(Tables 4 and 5).

LCA phases

The whole life cycle of a road infrastructure may be subdivided into five main phases:

1- Material production phase, including each single production process of the materials, from extraction of raw materials
to their transformation into the final product that will be used in the infrastructure itself, such as, for example, the
production in plant of bituminous or cementitious concrete. This phase also includes transport of raw materials from
the extraction to the process site, as well as to the construction site;
2- Construction phase, which includes all the execution for construction of the road infrastructure, including costs for
fuel of the equipment to be used on site as well as consequent emission in the air. For an existing infrastructure to
be rehabilitated or maintained, it should include traffic delays due to construction activities. Several models are avail-
able for estimating the cost of the delays, typically in terms of delayed vehicles, the time spent while queuing and the
value of this time. These models may be used in the LCA sense, in such a way that their outputs are linked to properly
selected emission factors.
3- Use phase, which is the longest phase of the whole life cycle. Factors to be included in this phase are mainly related to
energy consumption due to pavement deterioration and traffic growth, as well as to air pollution due to road vehicles,
which certainly represent the main contribution to the total emission of a road infrastructure during its life cycle.
Other factors to be considered, but not typically included in an LCA analysis, are related to surface rolling resistance
(since it influences the fuel consumption of a vehicle), albedo (which defines the reflectance effect of the surface and is

Table 2
Road geometry in embankment sections.

Layer Thickness (cm)

Wearing course 4
Binder course 6
Base course 10
Sub-base 35
Top layer of the embankment 35
Body of the embankment 100
Embankment foundation 35
 C. Celauro et al. / Transportation Research Part D 34 (2015) 41–51 45

Table 3
Road geometry in cut sections.

Layer Thickness (cm)

Wearing course 4
Binder course 6
Base course 10
Sub-base 35
Subgrade 50

Table 4
Embankment section scenarios definition (V = virgin materials, R = recycled materials, L = lime stabilization).

Layer Scenario
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
Wearing course V V V V V V V + 15%R V + 15%R V + 15%R
Binder course V V V V + 15%R V + 15%R V + 15%R V + 40%R V + 40%R V + 40%R
Base course V V V V + 15%R V + 15%R V + 15%R V + 40%R V + 40%R V + 40%R
Sub-base V V V V + 40%R V + 40%R V + 40%R V + + 100%R V + 100%R V + 100%R
Top layer of embankment V V L V V L V V L
Body of embankment V V L V V L V V L
Embankment foundation V L L V L L V L L

Table 5
Cut section scenarios definition (V = virgin materials, R = recycled materials, L = lime stabilization).

Layer Scenario
A B C D E F
Wearing course V V V V V + 15%R V + 15%R
Binder course V V V + 15%R V + 15%R V + 40%R V + 40%R
Base course V V V + 15%R V + 15%R V + 40%R V + 40%R
Sub-base V V V + 40%R V + 40%R V + 100%R V + 100%R
Subgrade V L V L V L

therefore related to the heat island effect produced by the infrastructure), carbonation (a mechanism that has proved
to absorb much of the CO2 emissions produced during the manufacturing process), leaching and runoff (to take into
account their effect on water pollution), roadway lighting (the need for electricity depends on the type of pavement as
well as on its aging condition, in relation to its reflectance properties) The latter is difficult to include in an LCA, since
progress in lighting engineering during the service life of the infrastructure may lead to significantly improved tech-
nologies making prevision of this factor difficult in a relatively long analysis period.
4- Maintenance and rehabilitation (M&R): these activities are fundamental for guaranteeing functionality (mainly in
terms of bearing capacity, surface regularity and friction, since they affect users’ safety) over the analysis period of
the road infrastructure. They include production of new material, transport to the site and laying processes, demolition
and discard of damaged material, always considering the appropriate equipment and related emission/fuel
consumption.
5- End-of-life phase: this implies definition of the final destination of the materials, in terms of re-allocation as recycling
material or disposal as waste. The main activities related to this phase are demolition and transportation of materials,
to be considered in terms of emission and fuel use. Leaching should be accounted for, during this phase, depending on
the use of the material after demolition. Typically, in an LCA this phase is neglected or simplified by considering full
disposal of the discarded material

In order to identify the most sustainable construction techniques that – at a design stage – can be selected and imple-
mented in order to minimize the environmental impact of a road infrastructure during its life cycle, this work is primarily
focused on the analysis of the material production, construction and maintenance phases. The components of the use phase
and end-of-life phase are not considered in this analysis. The decision to omit the use phase arises from the consideration
that use phase impacts can be reasonably considered as invariant in all the analyzed scenarios. In this connection, not only
is the traffic flow the same in all the scenarios, but so are the materials for the surface layers (and therefore their influence on
rolling resistance, on lighting reflectance and so on) and the maintenance and rehabilitation strategy. Therefore, use phase
impacts have no significant effects on the final analysis for comparative purposes.
As far as the end of life phase is concerned, this was not considered as in previous studies (Berthiaume and Bouchard,
1999; Mroueh et al., 2001), since maintenance policies at a national level (as in many other countries) do not allow one
to consider as realistic the total demolition and disposal of an infrastructure.
46 C. Celauro et al. / Transportation Research Part D 34 (2015) 41–51

Life cycle inventory

Materials

The materials considered for this study are the following:

- For the flexible pavement layers: good quality aggregates selected from crushed and sieved fractions from quarries
(mainly limestone and basaltic aggregate) and pure bitumen for asphalt mixtures. According to the typical mix design
for surface, binder and base courses in asphalt mixtures for the type of road considered, the percentage by mass of the
component materials were defined, as well as their bulk and compacted densities. In between two different layers as
previously detailed, spreading of tack coat asphaltic emulsion (quick setting type, with the same grade of asphalt binder
as used in the hot mix asphalt) was also specified with typical spread rates;
- For the unbound layers: aggregate from quarries (having selected gradation) for the sub-base layer, and good quality soil
(type A1 of the AASHTO Soil Classification System) for the subgrade. In the section in embankment, soil type A2-5 and
type A4 of the AASHTO Soil Classification System were considered for the top layer and for the body of the embankment,
respectively. Again, in order to ensure adhesion between the granular sub-base and the bituminous base layer, a prime
coat made of asphaltic emulsion (low setting type) was specified, at typical spread rates.
- For the scenarios involving recycled asphaltic materials: the recycled asphalt to be used in the pavement layers was
assumed to come from damaged layers of a similar infrastructures. Recycled asphaltic materials was assumed to be
milled and separated per layer, in order to keep its initial homogeneity, so that the final use for each recycled fraction
would be a new layer immediately below the original one (i.e. material from a surface course would be used in a new
binder course, that from the binder in a new base course, and the one from the base course would be used in the granular
sub-base). As before, asphalt mixtures with RAP were detailed in terms of percentage, by mass, of the component mate-
rials, according to the typical mix design of each layer. Since RAP has to be included in the mixtures, special additives
(rejuvenators) for restoring the properties of the aged RAP binder once in mixtures were considered too.
- For the scenarios involving soil treatment/stabilization with lime: the body of the embankment, including the top layer of
the embankment were assumed to be in type A6 soils of the AASHTO Soil Classification System, treated with 3% by mass
of quicklime. For the subgrade, the same soil was assumed with 6% by mass of quicklime. Additional water was assumed
to be supplied, for correction of the water content of the soil before treatment, as deriving from the mix design of the
mixture (assuming that, after evaluation of the initial water content, an extra 2% of water has to be added to the soil
to be treated).

Transportation

The raw materials (both virgin and recycled) were assumed to travel from extraction or plant sites to the construction
sites by road only. The transport vehicles considered in this study is a heavy duty dump truck with a diesel engine with stan-
dard emission and a gross vehicle weight rating (GVWR) of 20 Mg. Fuel consumption and environmental emissions were
computed as a function of speed (average speed is assumed equal to 70 km/h, with traffic flow in a steady-state condition
(Mauro, 2015)) and vehicle load. Two different load factors are assumed: 100% for the outward voyage, when the vehicle is
fully loaded, and 0% for the return, when the vehicle is assumed to be empty.
Average distances were assumed for the evaluation of the different scenarios, based on those typical of the regional
context, as detailed in Table 6.
When detailing the transport phases needed for the recycled materials, since RAP was considered as coming from main-
tenance operations carried out on a similar infrastructure, the same distance between the asphalt plan and the site of use
was considered. As far as lime treatment/stabilization is concerned, this was assumed to be carried out in-situ, so that a very
short distance (assumed equal to 1 km) was considered as reasonable for transport of the soil to be treated from the tem-
porary soil storage site to the jobsite.
Based on the density data defined for each material, considering the capacity and the fuel efficiency of the selected truck,
the total number of trips, therefore, was calculated and the corresponding emissions were obtained using the PaLATE
software, along the total traveling distance covered. In particular, the total number of trips was defined on the basis of
the volume of soil/material to be transported, as determined from the bill of quantities specifically defined for each scenario.

Table 6
Average transportation distances.

Transportation Distances km
Asphalt plant 30
Bitumen and emulsion plant 100
Lime plant 100
Quarry site 10
Soil for earthmoving 10
 C. Celauro et al. / Transportation Research Part D 34 (2015) 41–51 47

Table 7
Construction operation and related equipment, with specifications.

Related operation Machine Producer/model Engine Productivity Fuel

power (HP) (m3/h) Consumption
(l/h)
Cleaning and grubbing Bulldozer CAT Wheel Dozer 824H 401 740 71.4
Removal of organic overburden or topsoil
Excavation Excavator CAT 330D 270 400 68.0
Lime spreading Binding agent spreader Wirtgen SW 16 MC 360 150 2.0
Evenly mixing of lime with soil Soil Stabilizer Pulvimixer Wirtgen WR240i 600 800 80.0
Water correction of natural soil to be treated
Compaction of unbound layers Single drum vibratory Roller Bomag BW 226 dh-4 201 500 37.6
Precision-finishing of laid materials Motor Grader CAT 12M2 176 2500 40.0
Compaction of asphalt layers Tandem vibratory Roller Bomag BW 203 ad-4 134 200 32.7
Laying of asphalt layers Road paver Bomag BF 600 163 600 43.1
Prime and tack coat spreading Binding agent spreader Wirtgen SW 16 MC 360 150 2.0
Demolition and milling of asphalt layers Cold planer Bomag BM 2000/60 600 2,000 42.0

For excavated soils, a pertinent swelling factor was applied to the bank measure of excavation, for calculating the number of
loose cubic meter to be hauled by truck (also considering the haul unit capacity).

Initial construction and maintenance

The construction phase includes a first stage for site preparation, in terms of clearing and grubbing and topsoil stripping
(removal and disposal of vegetation and organic soils), and a second stage for construction of both unbound layers and
asphalt pavement.
Road construction and maintenance involves several processes and related machines. In this phase the environmental
burdens are due to fuel consumption in the machines used. An overview of the main construction equipment and their spec-
ifications as needed for the LCA in PaLATE is given in Table 7, also including those typical for soil stabilization or reclaiming
asphalt.
Since the final aim of the study is to compare the environmental sustainability of different technical choices in terms of
materials for road construction, the environmental emissions produced during the asphalt paving processes were neglected
since they can be considered constant for all the scenarios, and as a consequence the relative emissions are the same in all
the scenarios. The emissions linked with energy needs in the road construction site (for example electricity) are also the
same in all the scenarios.
Maintenance and rehabilitation activities must be planned in order to ensure the structural and functional performances
of a road. The layers mainly involved in maintenance activities are the surface layers, since they are in direct contact with the
traveling loads and more susceptible of deterioration due to traffic flows, weathering and external actions. The maintenance
activities here considered consist in demolition of the damaged layers and laying of new asphalt or granular layers. The
material removed can be recycled in order to be reused in other pavement construction activities or sent to landfill. During
the analysis period (30 years) the maintenance of the road involves the three asphalt layers (surface, binder and base), and
the sub-base 1, according to a simplified maintenance activity scheduled plan, given in Fig. 2, that can be consider as realistic
for the chosen type of road. Indeed, a different plan could result in significant differences in the results of the LCA. In any
case, durability of the recycled materials was not a concern, in comparison to that of traditional – virgin – materials: for
the mixtures with high percentage of RAP, a careful mix design allows one to consider the mechanical performances and
durability of these mixtures as comparable – even improved – with those of the asphalt mixtures with virgin materials only
(Celauro et al., 2010). For the soil–lime mixtures, it is well known that lime stabilization occurs over a long time period, with
increasing long-term mechanical performances and durability (Celauro et al., 2012a, 2012b), provided that adequate protec-
tion of the whole road structure is guaranteed.

Impact assessment

In the present study, ten main impact categories allowing one to estimate and compare the pressures exerted by each
scenario were analyzed: carbon dioxide (CO2), nitric oxide (NOx), particulate matter (PM10), carbon mono-oxide (CO), sulfur
dioxide (SO2), heavy metals (Pb and Hg), hazardous waste generated (RCRA), Human toxicity potential (HTP) cancer and
Human toxicity potential non cancer. Moreover energy (Berthiaume et al., 2001) and water consumption was calculated,
for each different scenario.
The additional burden due to the occupation of land by the road infrastructure during the analysis period considered was
not included in this study
For both the case of embankment and cut sections, each different scenario was evaluated by using the PaLATE tool. The
environmental impact, energy and water consumptions of such pavements, for the construction of 1 km of road and main-
tenance for a period of 30 years, are showed in Tables 8 and 9 for the two sections here investigated.
48 C. Celauro et al. / Transportation Research Part D 34 (2015) 41–51

Fig. 2. Simplified maintenance activity scheduled plan.

Table 8
Results of LCA of 1 km of local road in embankment section for the different scenarios considered.

Scenarios 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
Energy (MJ) 27,758,257 25,128,563 24,836,339 26,380,419 23,750,725 22,474,699 21,429,751 16,754,902 14,358,082
Water (kg) 38,924 38,519 38,413 38,478 38,089 37,927 33,025 32,387 32,048
CO2 (t) = GWP 1,824 1,626 1,624 1,739 1,548 1,474 1,437 1,104 934
NOx (kg) 10,686 12,009 14,202 10,801 12,085 12,422 10,943 9,206 8,429
PM10 (kg) 61,819 58,803 57,624 61,090 58,071 56,564 52,568 45,758 43,408
SO2 (kg) 4,789 4,675 4,723 4,525 4,408 4,344 3,488 3,107 2,922
CO (kg) 5,387 5,317 5,533 5,180 5,101 5,127 4,295 3,712 3,439
Hg (g) 22 22 24 20 21 21 14 14 14
Pb (g) 1,224 1,190 1,222 1,143 1,111 1,094 841 744 693
RCRA1 (kg) 225,258 228,396 239,965 209,936 213,738 215,008 150,686 143,441 139,779
HTPc2 (g) 3,528,338 3,399851 3,284,077 3,342,688 3,213,776 3,098,075 2,664,921 2,421,289 2,223,926
HTPnc3 (kg) 8,013,736 7,992,248 5,913,313 7,262,658 7,240,628 5,162,219 5,568,397 5,517,285 3,437,935
1
Hazardous waste generated.
2
Human toxicity potential cancer.
3
Human toxicity potential non cancer.

Table 9
Results of LCA of 1 km of local road in cut section for different scenarios considered.

Scenarios A B C D E F
Energy (MJ) 22,657,994 21,081,477 21,282,272 19,601,255 17,462,645 15,781,628
Water (kg) 37,246 37,025 36,774 36,537 35,628 35,391
CO2 (t) = GWP 1,468 1,356 1,385 1,265 1,145 1,026
NOx (kg) 8,565 8,204 9,261 8,752 9,688 9,179
PM10 (kg) 55,441 53,887 54,441 52,791 49,482 47,832
SO2 (kg) 4,247 4,132 4,012 3,883 3,342 3,214
CO (kg) 4,648 4,477 4,510 4,321 3,965 3,775
Hg (g) 20 20 19 18 15 15
Pb (g) 1,076 1,043 997 961 798 762
RCRA1 (kg) 205,547 203,373 191,973 189,461 156,497 153,985
HTPc2 (g) 3,234,161 3,089,935 3,097,316 2,937,741 2,644,344 2,484,769
HTPnc3 (kg) 9,309,005,776 7,489,073,542 8,260,966,276 6,255,343,471 5,852,791,846 3,847,169,040
1
Hazardous waste generated.
2
Human toxicity potential cancer.
3
Human toxicity potential non cancer.

As can be observed from Tables 8 and 9, both the energy and water consumed and the impact categories, except for NOx,
decrease with the increase of the percentage of RAP (Recycled Asphalt Pavement) involved and the percentage of lime
stabilization. This result is due to the reduction of virgin material use (extraction and production of raw materials) and to
the reduction of material transportation in particular with lime stabilization activities. The increase of NOx is linked with
the production of Hot Mix Asphalt, in which an additive constituted of nitrogen is involved.
Figs. 3 and 4 depicts the reduction of energy consumption and the CO2 emission as resulting for all the scenarios, given as
a percentage of the those produced by the scenario with virgin materials only (scenario 1 in Fig. 3 and scenario A in Fig. 4,
respectively).
 C. Celauro et al. / Transportation Research Part D 34 (2015) 41–51 49

50
Energy
CO2
45

40
Reduction of energy consumption and CO2 emissions (%)

35

30

25

20

15

10

0
Scenario 2 Scenario 3 Scenario 4 Scenario 5 Scenario 6 Scenario 7 Scenario 8 Scenario 9

Fig. 3. Percentage reduction of energy consumption and CO2 emission between the scenarios 2–9 and the scenario 1 in embankment.

50
Energy
CO2
45
Reduction of energy consumption and CO2 emissions (%)

40

35

30

25

20

15

10

0
Scenario B Scenario C Scenario D Scenario E Scenario F

Fig. 4. Percentage reduction of energy consumption and CO2 emission between the scenarios B–F and the scenario A in cut section.
50 C. Celauro et al. / Transportation Research Part D 34 (2015) 41–51

Table 10
Results of LCA of 1 km of local road for three scenarios (virgin materials, virgin materials and lime stabilization of existent materials, virgin materials and RAP).

Virgin materials (scenario 1) Virgin materials and lime stabilization Virgin materials and RAP (scenario 7)
(scenario 3)
Material Material Material Material Material Material
production transportation production transportation production transportation
Energy (MJ) 12,599,471 493,886 8,816,839 1,095,634 10,684,996 564,125
Water (kg) 11,947 84 11,290 187 11,387 96
CO2 (t) = GWP 854 37 624 48 733 42
NOx (kg) 2,356 1,967 2,626 4,364 2,306 2,247
PM10 (kg) 22,544 378 17,821 845 21,173 438
SO2 (kg) 1,574 118 1,308 262 1,253 135
CO (kg) 1,804 164 1,567 364 1,556 187
Hg (g) 5 0 7 0 4 0
Pb (g) 424 17 408 21 324 19
RCRA1 (kg) 62,888 3,559 74,702 4,586 45,355 4,065
HTPc2 (kg) 1,297,018 10,587 1,057,497 5,847 1,118,828 12,092
HTPnc3 (kg) 4,557,152 12,988 2,462,942 6,776 3,231,508 14,835
1
Hazardous Waste Generated.
2
Human toxicity potential cancer.
3
Human toxicity potential non cancer.

It can be noticed from Fig. 3 that for the embankment section, when using both RAP and lime stabilization (scenario 9) the
energy consumption is the 48.27% of the corresponding value for the scenario with virgin material, while the CO2 production
is the 48.27%. When using RAP in the pavement layers and virgin materials in the body of the embankment (scenario 7), the
energy consumption is the 22.79% of the corresponding value for the scenario with virgin material, while the CO2 production
reduces to the 21.22%. With the use of lime stabilization only (scenario 3), the energy consumption and the CO2 production
further reduce to 10.53% and 10.96%, respectively.
In the cut section (Fig. 4) when using both RAP and lime stabilization (scenario F) it is possible to obtain a reduction in
energy consumption and CO2 production up to the 30.35% and 30.11%, respectively. This result is even improved for the
scenario E (RAP only): the energy consumption reduces to the 22.93%, while the CO2 production goes down to the 21.97%.

Discussion

In order to establish the contribution of the production and transportation of materials to the burden of the whole trans-
portation system, the results obtained from the analysis of the considered scenarios – both for embankment and cut sections
– were compared. In particular, it is quite interesting to compare the results of three of the different 15 scenarios analyzed:
only virgin materials, virgin materials and lime stabilization of existent materials, virgin materials and RAP in embankment
(see Table 10). Therefore, in what follows the environmental impacts exerted for each one of the previously mentioned
scenarios are presented in detail, for comparison purposes.
As shown in Table 10, which details the contribution of the material production and transportation phases of the three
scenarios, the production of virgin materials proved to be the biggest contributor. Using lime stabilization ‘‘in situ’’ of avail-
able fine soils from earthmoving, it is possible to obtain a large reduction of energy consumption (30%) and of environmental
emission (i.e., 27% for CO2). More in detail, for this specific scenario, a noticeable reduction of the energy consumption and
environmental emissions is obtained in the production phase, but an increase in transportation phase has to highlighted, due
both to earth moving operations and to the transportation distances covered to supply lime to the construction site.

Conclusion

In the present work several construction scenarios-for realizing 1 km of pavement in embankment and cut section, were
investigated so as to evaluate the different contribution to the whole environmental impact of a road pavement during an
analysis period of 30 years, in order to evaluate the best solution to reduce the environmental burden.
The comparison between the different scenarios has shown interesting outcomes. Indeed, the pressure caused by pave-
ments produced with virgin materials and lime stabilization of existing materials produces a large reduction in energy con-
sumption and environmental emission. Furthermore, the use of lime stabilization and a higher amount of RAP gives rise to a
significant reduction in all environmental categories (i.e., CO2 48.79%, CO 41.11%, HTPc 36.97%). This confirms the importance
of including a large amount of RAP among the construction materials and above all of using the lime stabilization process of
fine soils from earthmoving operations, in order to reduce the supply of material for embankment and subgrade construction.
It is evident that the results presented here could be affected by the observation period selected for the analysis, that is to
say 30 years. The fact is that although during this period several maintenance actions take place, the impacts related to the
dismissing phase are not taken into account.
 C. Celauro et al. / Transportation Research Part D 34 (2015) 41–51 51

In addition, based on the obtained results, in order to achieve a more comprehensive environmental assessment of the
impact of the life cycle of a pavement, it would also be necessary to extend the analysis carried out here to other potential
scenarios, including other pavement types (such as the rigid ones, in concrete) and any other possible functional element
(barriers, road lighting, traffic signs and road markings, etc.).

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