Comprehensive Life Cycle Environmental Assessment of Preventive Maintenance Techniques for Asphalt Pavement

Abstract

Preventive maintenance (PM) is regarded as the most economical maintenance strategy for asphalt pavement, but the life cycle environmental impacts (LCEI) of different PM techniques have not yet been comprehensively assessed and compared, thus hindering sustainable PM planning. This study aims to comprehensively estimate and compared the LCEI of five PM techniques then propose measures to reduce environmental impacts in PM design by using life cycle assessment (LCA), including fog seal with sand, micro-surfacing, composite seal, ultra-thin asphalt overlay, and thin asphalt overlay. Afterwards, ten kinds of LCEI categories and energy consumption of PM techniques were compared from the LCA phases, and inventory inputs perspectives, respectively. Results show that fog seal with sand and micro-surfacing can lower all LCEI scores by more than 50%. The environmental performance of five PM techniques provided by sensitivity analysis indicated that service life may not create significant impact on LCA results to some extent. Moreover, four PM combination plans were developed and compared for environmental performance, and results show that the PM plan only includes seal coat techniques that can reduce the total LCEI by 7–29% in pavement life. Increasing the frequency of seal coat techniques can make the PM plans more sustainable.