Life Cycle Cost Analysis and the Comparative of Carbon Dioxide Emissions of Concrete and Asphalt Pavements in Taiwan Freeway Network: A Case Study
Date Issued
2016
Date
2016
Author(s)
Hsieh, Chang-Jun
Abstract
The 9.25 km (5.8 mile) Daxi-Longtan section of National Freeway No. 3 was the first large scale concrete pavement of major highway in Taiwan. Based on the recorded maintenance data for the past 22 years since its opening, concrete pavement has shown much lower frequency of maintenance and consequently lower maintenance costs than that of asphalt pavement. The major maintenance works involve diamond grinding, full depth and partial depth patch, joints resealing, and a few slab replacements. This study conducted life cycle cost analysis (LCCA) and life cycle assessment (LCA) on the concrete pavement and two conjunctive sections of asphalt pavement with the same length, one at each end of the concrete pavement section. The LCCA approach considers not only direct agency costs (initial construction costs and maintenance costs) but also extra user costs induced by congestion at maintenance work zone. The LCA mainly focused on CO2 emission of paving materials preparation, transportation, and construction equipment operation. The results show that for the first 22 years, the ratio of life cycle costs of concrete pavement over that of asphalt pavement is 1.11. On the other hand, the ratio of CO2 emission of concrete pavement over that of asphalt pavement is 1.34. Researchers also conducted the forecasting analysis for a total life of 40 years. It is found that both types of pavement have almost the same life cycle costs and CO2 emission. Since a relatively large portion of the user costs and CO2 emission of concrete pavement are caused by traffic congestion during maintenance, it is believed that both extra user costs and CO2 emission can be reduced significantly if the fast-track concrete pavement maintenance method can be adopted.
Subjects
Concrete pavement
Asphalt pavement
Life cycle cost analysis
Life cycle assessment
CO2 emission
Type
thesis
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