Pavement Life Cycle Assessment (LCA)

Life cycle assessment (LCA) considers all life-cycle phases from initial construction to demolition. For pavements, this includes the operation, maintenance, and end of life phases, and factors such as traffic delay, lighting demand, and future maintenance. CSHub models quantify environmental impacts across a pavement’s life cycle from manufacturing to disposal and offer detailed analyses of the use phase.

News

• The Hill: We’re overhauling our cars in the name of energy efficiency — why not our roads? (January 2024)
• MIT News: Study: Carbon-neutral pavements are possible by 2050, but rapid policy and industry action are needed (February 2023)
• MIT News: Concrete’s role in reducing building and pavement emissions (September 2021)
• Yahoo News: Could ‘cool pavements’ help in the battle against climate change? (August 2021)
• MIT News: Countering climate change with cool pavements (August 2021)
• The Boston Globe: Solutions to Extreme Heat Can be Found in Our Streets (August 2021)
• The Conversation: Lighter Pavement Really Does Cool Cities (June 2021)

Topic Summaries

• Mitigating Climate Change with Reflective Pavements (November 2020)
• Context Dependent Pavement Life Cycle Analysis (July 2019)
• Life Cycle Thinking: Pavements (March 2018)

Research Briefs

• Solutions for Net-zero Carbon Concrete in U.S. Pavements (July 2021)
• Life Cycle Carbon Uptake of the United States Pavement Network (January 2021)
• Impact of Use Phase in Pavement Life Cycle Assessment: A Case Study of Alternative Designs in Different Contexts (April 2014)
• Key Drivers of Uncertainty in Pavement LCA (November 2012)
• Comparative Pavement LCAs With Uncertainty (June 2012)
• Network, Pavements and Fuel Consumption (April 2012)
• Adopting a Life Cycle Perspective (April 2011)
• Designing for Sustainable Pavements (March 2011)

Publications

• Akbarian M., Moeini-Ardakani S.S., Ulm F.-J., Nazzal M., “Mechanistic Approach to Pavement-Vehicle Interaction and Its Impact on Life-Cycle Assessment,” Transportation Research Record: Journal of the Transportation Research Board, No. 2306, Pages 171-179, 2012
• AzariJafari, H., Guest, G., Kirchain, R., Gregory, J., & Amor, B. (2021). Towards comparable environmental product declarations of construction materials: Insights from a probabilistic comparative LCA approach. Building and Environment, 190, 107542.
• AzariJafari, H., Guest, G., Kirchain, R., Gregory, J., Amor, B. “Towards comparable environmental product declarations of construction materials: Insights from a probabilistic comparative LCA approach”, Building and Environment, 190: 2021, 107542. 2021.
• AzariJafari, H., Guo, F., Gregory, J., & Kirchain, R. (2023). Solutions to achieve carbon-neutral mixtures for the US pavement network. The International Journal of Life Cycle Assessment, 1-14.
• AzariJafari, H., Rangelov, M., Gregory, J., & Kirchain, R. (2023). Suitability of EPDs for Supporting Life Cycle and Comparative Analysis of Concrete Mixtures. Environmental Science & Technology, 57(19), 7321-7327
• Gregory, J., AzariJafari, H., Vahidi, E., Guo, F., Ulm, F.J., Kirchain, R. “The role of concrete in life cycle greenhouse gas emissions of US buildings and pavements.” PNAS. September 14, 2021 118 (37).
• Gregory, J., Noshadravan, A., Olivetti, E.A., Kirchain, R., “A Methodology for Robust Comparative Life Cycle Assessments Incorporating Uncertainty.” Environmental Science & Technology, Vol. 50: Issue. 12: Pages. 6397-6405.
• Gregory, Jeremy, et al. “The role of concrete in life cycle greenhouse gas emissions of US buildings and pavements.” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 118.37 (2021): e2021936118.
• Guo, F., AzariJafari, H., Gregory, J., Kirchain, R. “Environmental and economic evaluations of treatment strategies for pavement network performance-based planning”, Transportation Research D: Transport and Environment. Volume 99, October 2021, 103016
• Guo, Fengdi, et al. “A weighted multi-output neural network model for the prediction of rigid pavement deterioration.” International Journal of Pavement Engineering 23.8 (2022): 2631-2643.
• Huang, Y., Wolfram, P., Miller, R., Azarijafari, H., Guo, F., An, K., … & Wang, C. (2022). Mitigating life cycle GHG emissions of roads to be built through 2030: Case study of a Chinese province. Journal of Environmental Management,
• J. Gregory, A. Noshadravan, O. Swei, X. Xu, R. Kirchain, “The importance of incorporating uncertainty into pavement life cycle cost and environmental impact analyses,” Proceedings of the Pavement Life-Cycle Assessment Symposium 2017, Champaign, IL, April 12-13, 2017
• J. Mack, J. Gregory, R. Kirchain, “Accounting for Rehabilitation Activity Uncertainty in a Pavement Life Cycle Assessment using Probability and Decision Tree Analysis,” Proceedings of the International Concrete Sustainability Conference, Miami, FL, May 11-13, 2015.
• J. Mack, X. Xu, J. Gregory, R. Kirchain, “Developing robust rehabilitation scenario profiles for life cycle assessment using decision tree analysis,” Proceedings of the International Symposium on Pavement LCA, Davis, CA, October 14-16, 2014.
• Kirchain, R., Gregory, J., Olivetti, E. “Environmental life-cycle assessment.” Nature Materials, 16 693–697 (2017)
• Loijos A., Akbarian M., Sahni S., Ochsendorf J., “Sensitivity Analysis of the Life Cycle Environmental Performance of Asphalt and Concrete Pavements,” Concrete Sustainability Conference, 2010
• Loijos A., Santero N., Ochsendorf J. “Life cycle climate impacts of the US concrete pavement network.” Resources, Conservation and Recycling. Volume 72, March 2013, Pages 76-83, 2013.
• Louhghalam A., Akbarian, M., Ulm F-J. “Carbon management of infrastructure performance: Integrated big data analytics and pavement-vehicle-interactions”. Journal of Cleaner Production. Volume 142, Part 2, 20 January 2017, Pages 956-964. 2016
• M. Akabarian, F. Ulm, X. Xu, R. Kirchain, J. Gregory, A. Louhghalam, J. Mack, “Overview of pavement life cycle assessment use phase research at the MIT Concrete Sustainability Hub”, ASCE T&DI International Airfield and Highway Pavements Conference, Chicago, IL, July 21-24, 2019.
• Mack J., Ulm F.-J., Gregory J., Kirchain R., Akbarian M., Swei O., Wildnauer M., “Designing Sustainable Concrete Pavements using the Pavement-ME Mechanistic Empirical Pavement Design and Life Cycle Analysis,” International Conference on Long-Life Concrete Pavement, 2012
• Noshadravan A., Wildnauer M., Gregory J., Kirchain R., “Comparative Pavement Life Cycle Assessment with Parameter Uncertainty,” Transportation Research Part D, 25, Pages 135-138, 2013
• Noshadravan A., Xu X., Gregory J., Kirchain R., “Uncertainty management in comparative life-cycle assessment of pavements”, Proceedings of the 12th International Symposium on Concrete Roads, Prague, Czech Republic, September 23-26, 2014.
• Safari, K., & AzariJafari, H. (2021). Challenges and opportunities for integrating BIM and LCA: Methodological choices and framework development. Sustainable Cities and Society, 67, 102728.
• Santero N., Loijos A., Ochsendorf J., “Greenhouse Gas Emissions Reduction Opportunities for Concrete Pavements,” Journal of Industrial Ecology, Volume 17, Issue 6, Pages 859–868, 2013
• Xin Xu, Mehdi Akbarian, Jeremy Gregory, Randolph Kirchain, “Role of the use phase and pavement-vehicle interaction in comparative pavement life cycle assessment as a function of context”, Journal of Cleaner Production, 2019.
• Xu X., Noshadravan A., J. Gregory, R. Kirchain, “Scenario analysis of comparative pavement life cycle assessment using a probabilistic approach,” Proceedings of the International Symposium on Pavement LCA, Davis, CA, October 14-16, 2014.
• Xu, X., Gregory J., Kirchain R., “Role of the Use Phase and Pavement-Vehicle Interaction in Comparative Pavement Life Cycle Assessment” Transportation Research Board 94th Annual Meeting. No. 15-4011. 2015.
• Xu, X., Gregory, J., &  Kirchain, R. “Role of the Use Phase and Pavement-Vehicle Interaction in Comparative Pavement Life Cycle Assessment,” Proceedings of the Transportation Research Board 97th Annual Meeting, 2018.
• Xu, X., Wildnauer, M., Gregory, J., & Kirchain, R. “Accounting for Variation in Life Cycle Inventories: The Case of Portland Cement Production in the U.S.”, R.E. Kirchain et al. (Eds), REWAS 2016: Towards Materials Resource Sustainability, Springer AG.