Concrete Pavement’s Role in a Sustainable, Resilient Future

ACPA recently released a white paper, “Concrete Pavement’s Role in a Sustainable, Resilient Future,” which synthesizes research on concrete pavement’s contributions to economic, environmental, and social sustainability. As part of our role in educating decision-makers who are involved in the placement and rehabilitation of roadway, highway, and airfield pavements, the ACPA has assembled this white paper to assist those decision-makers as they are challenged to meet ever-increasing levels of sustainability.

“Concrete Pavement’s Role in a Sustainable, Resilient Future’” provides an overview of sustainability and sustainability’s relationship to resilience. Because a system cannot be sustainable if it is not also resilient, pavements should be designed with a life cycle approach that contemplates pavement’s entire life span. Designing with life cycle in mind can help ensure pavements enhance all three categories of sustainability: economic, environmental, and social. Concrete is a material well-positioned to address the planet’s climate change considerations.

The report summarizes concrete pavement’s role in sustainability, including:

Lifespan

The long-life span of concrete pavement, which provides the greatest economic value over the long term for taxpayers and end users. Concrete can last 30 years or more before requiring a maintenance cycle.

Use-Phase

Research supporting concrete pavement’s many use-phase environmental and societal benefits, including improved fuel efficiency, high albedo (which improves the earth’s energy balance and urban heat island effect, both of which lead to cooling impacts and CO2 reduction) and CO2 absorption.

Net Zero

Examination of how the concrete pavement industry and others across the concrete value chain are working together to implement the PCA’s Roadmap to Carbon Neutrality, with a goal of achieving net zero carbon emissions by 2050. (Examples include reducing cement’s carbon footprint using blended cements and reducing concrete’s carbon footprint using performance-engineered mixtures.)

Life Cycle

The importance of life cycle thinking in addressing social sustainability, particularly concrete pavement’s long life (which not only provides a smooth, safe roadway for the traveling public but reduces the hazards associated with work zones throughout the life of the pavement); its ability to withstand, respond to, and recover rapidly after a disruptive event; and good performance with minimal traffic disruption due to maintenance.

Sustainable Pavements - Executive Summary

File size: 663.61 KB

Created: 19-01-2023

Updated: 19-01-2023

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