Quantifying Pavement Sustainability For Ontario Highways

Abstract

With the emerging trend of sustainability, sustainable infrastructure is highly regarded by the general public. Sustainable pavement is also a concept that has driven many research motivations today. These motivations are in the form of sustainable paving material utilization, innovative design and construction methods. One of the goals behind these research motivations is maximizing pavement performance using the given funding and resources available.

Despite the significant research attention for innovation and actual sustainable pavement practices already commencing, there is no readily available system or score card to quantify sustainable pavement engineering practice. In 2008, the Ministry of Transportation Ontario (MTO) initiated a research project with the University of Waterloo Centre for Pavement and Transportation Technology (UW CPATT) regarding quantifying pavement sustainability. The ultimate goal of the research is to develop a framework for formally incorporating sustainability into pavement engineering for MTO.

In order to achieve this goal, the research reviewed the state-of-practice sustainable pavement material and technologies. A sustainable pavement workshop is hosted by CPATT and MTO that invited key stakeholders in Ontario pavement industry for a discussion of sustainable pavement. The environment and economic benefits of different technologies are explored to understand their sustainable elements. Indicators to measure pavement sustainability are proposed based on the recent MTO GreenPave evaluation program and life cycle cost of pavements. Lastly, network level pavement management and ideas to improve sustainability at network level is examined.