Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
Fig. 7
Sustainability comparison of alternative strategies
that compares the viable alternatives and allows the most sustainable option to be
readily identified.
The key indicators for assessment of each scenario can be selected based on
what is considered important for a particular agency. While financial considerations
will usually dominate, social and environmental criteria also need to be included.
The alternatives are rated from −2 to +2 under a series of attributes grouped under
environmental social and economic. Figure
6
illustrates the rating grid for the two
options. The graphical presentation of the results is presented in Fig.
7
. In this
instance option 2 (perpetual pavement) obtains the best overall sustainability bal-
ance (represented by the larger yellow triangle) and therefore is the preferred solu-
tion for the RHVP.
Conclusions
The increasing awareness of the damage to the environment caused by road trans-
portation is increasing demand for more responsible pavement structural designs.
Better materials and improved analytical techniques now allow asphalt pavements
to be designed to last 50 or more years with minimal maintenance intervention.
These long lasting (perpetual) asphalt pavements have lower environmental and
social impacts and are more economic over the longer term. They make better use
