Evaluation of Sustainability of Low-Volume Roads Treated with Nontraditional Stabilizers

Abstract

The use of nontraditional stabilizers to treat unpaved (mostly low-volume) roads has received attention over the past several years as various types of stabilizers have been developed and become available. Evaluation of the sustainability of various infrastructure actions, including the provision and maintenance of roads, is becoming more relevant as the effects of actions taken in the natural environment on itself and on the human environment are evaluated and understood in more detail. The Greenroads rating system offers a method for evaluation of the sustainability of the design, construction, and maintenance of roads. The system was developed with a focus on surfaced higher-volume roads. In this paper, the potential applicability of the Greenroads system for the evaluation of the sustainability of unsurfaced low-volume roads is investigated through two case studies of experiments in which unpaved low-volume test sections were treated with various types of traditional and nontraditional material stabilizers. Appropriate parameters were selected from the general Greenroads metric to ensure that those affecting unpaved low-volume roads would be evaluated (e.g., runoff quality and use of regional materials) while parameters such as paving emission reduction were excluded from the analysis. The assumption was made that all compulsory project requirements would be met by each of the options evaluated. It was concluded that the Greenroads metric can be used to evaluate the potential sustainability of unpaved low-volume roads treated with nontraditional stabilizers and that the metric can provide insight into the potential effect of various parameters on the sustainability of the various stabilization options.