Life-cycle assessment environmental sustainability in bridge design and maintenance

Abstract

Interviews were undertaken with expert bridge designers to reveal their opinions on environmental considerations and the possibility of integrating life-cycle assessment into the bridge design process. Bridge designers were generally found to consider that the need for the bridge, access for future maintenance, use of quality materials, longevity, cost savings and sustainability are matters more important than life-cycle environmental emissions. Moreover, the limited awareness of life-cycle assessments among bridge designers along with a keenness to execute clients’ requirements, mostly on the basis of cost, has further widened the gap. This gap could be overcome by ensuring that detailed environmental matters such as carbon dioxide, nitrogen dioxide and greenhouse gas emissions are considered as design criteria; encouraging designers to highlight emerging environmental matters in the design brief; heightening awareness of life-cycle assessment among designers to increase its potential usage; and factoring life-cycle assessment damage indicators into the bridge design process.