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• Streamlined Environmental Assessment: MIT’s new framework reduces data collection by up to 85% without compromising decision-making reliability.
• Significant Emission Reduction Potential: The tool could enable a 65% reduction in pavement sector emissions by 2050 through smarter materials and maintenance practices.
• Accessible Online Platform: MIT aims to democratize pavement life-cycle assessment, empowering stakeholders with an easy-to-use tool for environmentally responsible decisions.

MIT researchers at the Concrete Sustainability Hub (CSHub) have introduced a groundbreaking tool that addresses the environmental challenges posed by the U.S. road infrastructure. This new framework simplifies the life-cycle assessment (LCA) of pavements, making it accessible to a broad range of stakeholders while significantly reducing the data collection burden.

“Conducting pavement LCA is costly and labor-intensive,” explains Haoran Li, a postdoc at CSHub and the study’s lead author. “Many assessments simplify the process using fixed values for input parameters or focus only on upfront emissions from materials production and construction. However, conducting LCA with fixed input values fails to account for uncertainties and variations, which may lead to unreliable results.”

Framework Highlights

The CSHub’s framework prioritizes data collection on factors with the greatest influence on a pavement’s life-cycle environmental impacts. By controlling uncertainty, it reduces the overall data collection burden by up to 85% while maintaining the robustness of the conclusions.

“This novel streamlined framework embraces and controls the uncertainty in pavement LCA,” says Li. “This helps understand the minimum amount of data required to achieve a robust decision.”

Real-World Application

The MIT team applied this framework to a pavement project in Boston, modeling both asphalt and jointed plain concrete designs. They found that even with varying levels of data specificity, the proportionate emissions associated with different life-cycle components remained consistent. For instance, emissions from construction and maintenance accounted for about half of the concrete pavement’s GHG emissions, while the use-phase emissions for asphalt accounted for 70-90% of its total life-cycle emissions.

Hessam AzariJafari, deputy director of the CSHub and co-author of the study, underscores the importance of this framework for decision-makers. “Typically, multiple pavement stakeholders need to provide extensive input data for conducting an LCA. Our streamlined approach reduces the complexity, making the process more practical and accessible.”

A Path to Sustainable Roads

Looking forward, MIT is developing an online platform that integrates this LCA framework. This tool will democratize pavement life-cycle assessments, enabling stakeholders like departments of transportation and metropolitan planning organizations to identify environmentally friendly and high-performing pavement options.

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By 2050, pavement sector emissions could be reduced by up to 65% if stakeholders invest in better materials and maintenance practices. The MIT framework is a crucial step toward achieving these reductions, offering a practical solution to one of the infrastructure’s most pressing environmental challenges.

This innovation in pavement LCA represents a significant advancement in sustainable infrastructure, potentially transforming how roads are built and maintained across the United States.