Integrated sustainability assessment of asphalt rubber pavement based on life cycle analysis

This study aims to quantify and compare the life-cycle environmental, economic and social impacts of two pavement materials: namely 10 mm Asphalt Rubber Stone Matrix Asphalt (ARSMA10) and 10 mm Polymer Modified Stone Matrix Asphalt (PMSMA10). To achieve this objective, a comparative sustainability framework was developed by: 1) combining the Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) with pavement maintenance plan developed based on the pavement conditions predicted by the Mechanistic-Empirical Pavement Design Guide (MEPDG) software; 2) examining the additional fuel consumption and emissions based on predicted pavement condition; 3) and integrating the Cost-Benefit Analysis (CBA) to estimate the environmental damage cost and noise reduction benefit. The major findings of this study include: 1) in the 56-year analysis period, the dominant contributions to environmental impact are made by the extra vehicle Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emission and fuel consumption caused by pavement roughness change; 2) PMSMA10 has better environmental performance than ARSMA10 in terms of energy consumption and GHG emissions; 3) the long-term accumulated tire-road noise impact is considerable, which can almost offset its higher economic cost and environmental damage cost assuming ARSMA10 is able to decrease noise by 4%.