Quantitative Assessment of Environmental Impacts on Life Cycle of Highways
Publication: Journal of Construction Engineering and Management
Volume 129, Issue 1
Abstract
Several representative environmental loads emitted from the life cycle of highways, which form one of the major infrastructure sectors, were estimated. The life cycle of highways was divided into four stages—manufacturing of construction materials, construction, maintenance/repair, and the demolition/recycling stage. Energy consumption in each life cycle stage was quantified, and environmental load was estimated by applying the environmental emissions factor per each energy source. As a result, it is estimated that the most energy was consumed in the manufacturing stage of construction materials, with consumption of 1,525.8 tons of oil equivalent (TOE) per functional unit (1 km and four lanes of highway). Energy consumption in the maintenance and repair stage was also relatively high among the life cycle stages; the next highest consumption was for the construction and demolition stage. Through the whole life cycle of 20 years, 2,676.8 TOE of energy per functional unit was consumed, and this corresponds to and emissions of 62.1 tons, 17.1 tons, and 2,438.5 T-C, respectively.
Get full access to this article
View all available purchase options and get full access to this article.
References
Curran, M. A. (1996). Environmental life-cycle assessment, McGraw-Hill, New York.
Graedel, T. E., and Allenby, B. (1995). Industrial ecology, Prentice-Hall, Englewood Cliffs, N.J.
Guidebook to maintain and repair road pavement. (1999). Department of Road Management, Ministry of Construction and Transportation, Korea (in Korean).
Harris, D. J.(1999). “A quantitative approach to the assessment of the environmental impact of building materials.” Build. Environ., 34, 751–758.
Hendrickson, C., and Horvath, A.(2000). “Resource use and environmental emissions of U.S. construction sectors.” J. Constr. Eng. Manage., 126(1), 38–44.
Hwang, Y.(2000). “Necessity of LCA to evaluate systematic environmental load in construction industry.” J. Kor. Soc. Civ. Eng., 48(1), 13–18 (in Korean).
Hwang, Y., Hanaki, K., and Tanaka, T.(1996a). “Consideration of life cycle on sludge treatment system.” J. Japan Sewage Works Association, 33, 75–87 (in Japanese).
Hwang, Y., Hanaki, K., and Tanaka, T.(1996b). “Effective energy utilization in sludge treatment system.” Envir. Syst. Res., 24, 703–708 (in Japanese).
Hwang, Y., Park, K., and Seo, S.(2000). “Assessment of emissions from road construction activities.” J. Kor. Soc. Civ. Eng., 20(1-B), 113–121 (in Korean).
International Standards Organization (ISO). (1997). “Environmental management—Life cycle assessment—Principles and framework.” Draft International Standard 14040, Geneva.
Korea Energy Economics Institute (KEEI). (1996). “Energy balances of Korea (1981–1996).” Rep., Ministry of Trade and Industry, Korea (in Korean).
Korea Highway Corporation (KHC). (1997a). “Bill of quantity for highway construction work.” Rep. (in Korean).
Korea Highway Corporation (KHC). (1997b). “Bill of unit cost for highway construction work.” Rep. (in Korean).
Korea Highway Corporation (KHC). (1999). “Bill of unit cost for maintenance and repair of highway.” Rep. (in Korean).
Miller, R. E., and Blair, P. D. (1985). Input-output analysis: Foundations and extensions, Prentice-Hall, Englewood Cliffs, N.J.
Ministry of Trade and Industry. (1997). “A pilot study for the development of energy life cycle inventory methodology.” Korea Governmental Rep. (in Korean).
1995 Input-output tables (CD-Rom). (1998). The Bank of Korea (in Korean).
Seo, S. (1998). “Assessment of life cycle carbon dioxide emission for residential building and development of the calculating system.” PhD thesis, Dept. of Civil Engineering, Chungang Univ., Seoul, Korea (in Korean).
Seo, S., and Gee, J.(2000). “Methodology to apply LCA to construction industry.” J. Kor. Soc. Civ. Eng., 48(1), 19–26 (in Korean).
Seo, S., and Hwang, Y.(1999). “An estimation of construction and demolition debris in Seoul, Korea: Waste amount, type, and estimating model.” J. Air Waste Manage. Assoc., 49(8), 980–985.
Seo, S., Hwang, Y., and Ichinose, T.(1999). “Development and application of calculating system for evaluation of life cycle emission of construction building.” J. Kor. Soc. Civ. Eng., 19(II-6), 749–755 (in Korean).
Information & Authors
Information
Published In
Copyright
Copyright © 2003 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Dec 6, 2000
Accepted: Feb 15, 2002
Published online: Jan 15, 2003
Published in print: Feb 2003
Authors
Metrics & Citations
Metrics
Citations
Download citation
If you have the appropriate software installed, you can download article citation data to the citation manager of your choice. Simply select your manager software from the list below and click Download.