Developing green bridge rating system using Simos’ procedure

Abstract

Sustainable development principles have been implemented in various sectors including construction. Proper development and operation of infrastructure projects, such as bridges and highways, can contribute significantly to the mission of sustainable development. In this respect, there is little existing work on appropriate methods to assess the sustainability performance of bridge projects. This paper introduces a key-list of gathered important criteria that affect the sustainability of bridge projects. Various construction industry standards have been reviewed in order to decide the criteria that influence sustainability of bridge projects. The initial list of criteria has been identified by unstructured interviews. Then, structured interviews and questionnaire survey have been conducted to identify the final list that is deemed important in rating green bridges. Various construction industry standards have been reviewed to decide on the criteria that influence sustainability of bridge projects. Final criteria results from this paper are used to develop a green bridge rating system to achieve sustainable development. Degree of importance and weights of these criteria are determined using Simos’ procedure. Five classes of bridges are proposed to judge their status with respect to sustainability, with these being Non-Green, Certified, Green, total Green, and Evergreen.