| Article ID | Journal | Published Year | Pages | File Type |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1063100 | Resources, Conservation and Recycling | 2013 | 10 Pages |
•Treated earthwork items induced most of the considered environmental impacts.•Quicklime treatments dominated energy consumption and global warming indicators.•Quicklime treatments allowed both soil and aggregates resources conservation.•Machines drove the ozone creation, eutrophication and acidification indicators.•The impacts of the earthwork stage were equivalent to a few years of road traffic.
This study presents the contributions of materials, earth engineering machines and construction techniques to potential environmental impacts from the main items of typical road earthworks. To achieve this goal, the overall activity at a 1.9-km long French earthworks project site for a heavily trafficked highway was surveyed during its 2007–2009 construction period. Using data collected and a numerical model of road life cycle assessment (LCA), i.e. ECORCE, six indicators could be evaluated, namely: energy consumption, global warming potential, acidification, eutrophication, photochemical ozone creation, and human chronic toxicity. When available, several life cycle inventories were implemented in order to appraise indicator sensitivity with respect to the considered panel of pollutants. Results also allowed estimating from an LCA point of view: (i) the conservation of both aggregates and soil as induced by quicklime treatment and (ii) the duration necessary for projected traffic levels to offset the potential environmental impacts of the earthworks stage.
