Authors
Shokri, Manouchehr; Nangah Mankaa, Rose
Abstract
Problem: Analyzing the sustainability of alternatives considering design methods, construction techniques, and materials used to build the infrastructure are necessary to achieve Sustainable Development Goals. To attain this goal, sustainable production and construction related to transportation infrastructures are part of the European policy. As it is well known, the transportation industry and its related infrastructure including the railway and roads, require very high construction costs. The excessive use of natural resources and energy for related construction and maintenance has highlighted the need for adapting purposeful planning with regards to sustainability impacts. In transportation infrastructure, the focus should be to minimize energy consumption, related Greenhouse Gas emissions and other environmental impacts over their entire life cycle. However, new railroad and highway structure components must sustain higher dynamic loads as the resistance to displacement lasts longer with less frequent maintenance cycles . Goal: Develop a Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) model useful for decision making that can adequately evaluate the resource use and environmental effects of various use scenarios of Electric Arc Furnace(EAF) Steel Slag and different type of Geosynthetic material in road and rail construction layers in comparison to primary raw material. Methods: LCA according to ISO 14040 & 14044 standards is carried out for road pavement and railway component with EAF and Geosynthetics layer. The outcome of the LCA will be used to develop the decision support model specific to the transportation infrastructure sector. The Finite Elements Method(FEM) is implemented to analyse the dynamic axel load response of road pavements and railway components (Conventional and new designed). Results: Preliminary results show that placing EAF aggregates and Geosynthetic layer at the surface and base–subgrade interface lead to improvements in both technical performance