Evaluating Sustainability of Selected Airport Pavement Treatments with Life-Cycle Cost, Raw Material Consumption, and Greenroads Standards

Abstract

In the global aviation community, sustainability increasingly is becoming a priority for airport projects as a foundation for future prosperity. Pavement structures are an airport's greatest asset and greatest liability. Pavement management systems involve an intensive and expensive enterprise, and pavement maintenance projects consume massive amounts of nonrenewable resources at every airport in the nation. Little research has been conducted to assist airport pavement managers in reducing the environmental, economic, and social impacts of pavement maintenance and preservation processes. The old cliché of “what is not measured is not managed” applies, and a performance metric therefore is needed to permit pavement managers to measure sustainability. No standard, quantitative performance metric for sustainability is now in use by pavement managers assessing pavement treatment alternatives. This paper demonstrates how airport pavement managers can quantitatively analyze typical pavement treatments with a life-cycle cost analysis, quantification of raw material consumption, and the recently developed Greenroads standards to measure the environmental, economic, and social impact of the treatments for a given pavement project to enhance the overall sustainability of their programs.