Exploiting 3D modelling and life cycle assessment to improve the sustainability of pavement management

Abstract

Today road agencies worldwide face difficult decisions for construction, maintenance and rehabilitation of their road infrastructure as they try to balance limited budgets. This is further complicated rising environmental concerns over equipment and techniques used for these practices. This has led agencies to consider alternative approaches for smarter and sustainable pavement asset management systems. This paper considers the use of a low-cost 3D image modelling distress identification and classification proposal for data acquisition and analysis. To establish its environmental friendliness, a case study in Palermo, Italy, is considered wherein a Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) exercise is done. A base case using current practices is considered and compared to the optimized system to define environmental impacts. The results show the proposed methods yield both environmental and economic benefits for road agencies providing crucial savings which can be allocated to other sections of road networks in need of maintenance.