Greenhouse Gas Emissions from Onsite Equipment Usage in Road Construction
Publication: Journal of Construction Engineering and Management
Volume 138, Issue 8
Abstract
Greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from onsite equipment usage have not been fully investigated despite their high reduction potential. This study presents a comparative analysis of the generation of GHGs by various equipment types used in different construction activities. Twenty-four cases involving a typical road construction project in Korea were selected for comparison. GHG emissions from onsite equipment usage for different activities were estimated using final design documents, which fully defined the construction project. This study also provides the expected ranges of such emissions according to equipment productivity related to site conditions of good, fair, and poor. For the major activities that produced most of the GHG emissions from onsite equipment, the value was estimated to be in the range of , with 282.17 for fair site conditions. A focus group interview (FGI) was conducted to identify guidelines that can be applied to improve equipment productivity to reduce GHG emissions. The proper selection of equipment and its components to deal with specific site conditions was one of the fundamental reduction methods derived through the FGI. These study results can be used to reduce GHG emissions from onsite equipment usage.
Get full access to this article
View all available purchase options and get full access to this article.
Acknowledgments
This work was supported by National Research Foundation of Korea grants funded by the Ministry of Education, Science, and Technology of Korea (2010-0014365 and 2011-0030841).
References
Athena Institute. (2006). A life cycle perspective on concrete and asphalt roadways: Embodied primary energy and global warming potential, Cement Association of Ottawa, Canada.
Bullard, C. W., Penner, P. S., and Pilati, D. A. (1978). “Net energy analysis: Handbook for combining process and input-output analysis.” Resour. EnergyRESND9, 1(3), 267–313.
Day, D. A., and Benjamin, N. B. H. (1991). Construction equipment guide (Wiley series of practical construction guides), 2nd Ed., Wiley, Hoboken, NJ.
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). (2009). Potential for reducing greenhouse gas emissions in the construction sector, Washington, DC.
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. (2007). “Climate change 2007: Synthesis report. Contribution of working groups i, ii and iii to the fourth assessment report of the intergovernmental panel on climate change.” The IPCC 4th Assessment Rep., Team, C. W., Pauchauri, R. K., and Reisinger, A., eds., IPCC, Geneva.
International Standards Organization. (1998). ISO 14041, Geneva.
Korea Institute of Construction Technology. (2010). Civil engineering cost data, KICT Cost Center, Gyeonggi-do, Republic of Korea (in Korean).
Leontief, W. W. (1966). “The structure of American economy, 1919–1939: An empirical application of equilibrium analysis.” 2nd Ed., Oxford University Press, New York.
Matin, A., et al. (2004). Canada’s greenhouse gas inventory 1990–2002, Greenhouse Gas Division, Environment Canada, Ottawa, Canada.
Ministry of Land, Transport, and Maritime Affairs of Korea (MLTM). (2008). Road engineering guidebook, Dept. of Road Management, Gyeonggi-do, Republic of Korea (in Korean).
National Institute of Environmental Research (NIER). (2009). National air pollutants emission 2007, NIER Climate & Air Quality Research Dept., Incheon, Korea.
Park, K., Hwang, Y., Seo, S., and Seo, H. (2003). “Quantitative assessment of environmental impacts on life cycle of highways.” J. Constr. Eng. Manage.JCEMD4, 129(1), 25–31.
Santero, N. J., and Horvath, A. (2009). “Global warming potential of pavements.” Environ. Res. Lett.ERLNAL, 4(3), 034011.
Stripple, H. (2001). Life cycle assessment of a road, a pilot study for inventory analysis, 2nd Ed., Revised Edition, IVL Swedish Environmental Research Institute Ltd., Gothenburg, Sweden.
Zapata, P., and Gambatese, J. A. (2005). “Energy consumption of asphalt and reinforced concrete pavement materials and construction.” J. Infrastruct. Syst.JITSE4, 11(1), 9–20.
Information & Authors
Information
Published In
Journal of Construction Engineering and Management
Volume 138 • Issue 8 • August 2012
Pages: 982 - 990
Copyright
© 2012. American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Feb 24, 2011
Accepted: Dec 5, 2011
Published online: Dec 7, 2011
Published in print: Aug 1, 2012
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.