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• Civil and Environmental Engineering

Pavements pose challenges to the vision of a sustainable transportation system infrastructure because their construction and maintenance require large amounts of material consumption, energy inputs, and capital investment. The transportation sector, which is a significant contributor to greenhouse gas emissions in the U.S. and world, will likely play a major role in determining the future of our sustainable development efforts. Pavements play a significant role in the energy consumption of the vehicles and freight through their rolling resistance and pavement roughness, which affect fuel economy, vehicle damage, and damage to goods.

This class will identify these challenges for flexible and rigid pavement systems. The concept of sustainable pavements as a system characteristic encompassing safety, ecosystem, human health, social impacts will be defined. The existing sustainable practices and major challenges will be discussed for the materials, design, construction, use-phase, maintenance/preservation, and end of life stages of a pavement life cycle. Life-cycle assessment principles and framework for quantative decision making will be introduced with real world examples.

3 or 4 hours