Carbon Footprint Cost Index: Measuring the Cost of Airport Pavement Sustainability

The airport pavement design process for construction and maintenance projects is typically only considers pavement alternatives on a basis of initial cost. With recent concern for the impact of these projects on the environment, airports are seeking to include sustainability into their pavement maintenance treatment selection decisions. The paper proposes a new decision criterion that integrates sustainability with initial cost, essentially quantifying the “bang for the buck” and permitting airport pavement managers to justify investing in higher cost treatments on a basis of enhanced sustainability. The metric is termed the carbon footprint cost index and measures the relative cost of reducing a pavement project’s carbon footprint. The paper also presents a methodology based on the Analytical Hierarchical Process (AHP) for integrating the index into the typical airport pavement construction/maintenance project design process and demonstrates the utility of the new metric by applying it to a case study project at the Will Rogers International Airport in Oklahoma City. The paper concludes that the carbon footprint cost index provides a simple way to enhance pavement sustainability at airports across the nation. Utilizing an AHP can guide the decision as well. The AHP allows weighting of cost, performance and sustainability. Additionally, a framework for determining when to increase the budget for pavement preservation and sustainability requirements is presented to assist owners in the decision making process, using initial cost, life cycle cost, and carbon footprint.

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• Supplemental Notes:
  • This paper was sponsored by TRB committee AFD10 Pavement Management Systems.
• Corporate Authors:

  Transportation Research Board

  500 Fifth Street, NW
  Washington, DC  United States  20001
• Authors:
  • Mosier, Rachel D
  • Pittenger, Dominique
  • Gransberg, Douglas D
• Conference:
  • Transportation Research Board 93rd Annual Meeting
  • Location: Washington DC
  • Date: 2014-1-12 to 2014-1-16
• Date: 2014

Language

• English

Media Info

• Media Type: Digital/other
• Features: Figures; References; Tables;
• Pagination: 10p
• Monograph Title: TRB 93rd Annual Meeting Compendium of Papers

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Airport runways; Analytic hierarchy process; Cost indexes; Environmental impacts; Greenhouse gases; Pavement design; Pavement maintenance; Sustainable development
• Geographic Terms: Oklahoma City (Oklahoma)
• Subject Areas: Aviation; Maintenance and Preservation; Pavements; I22: Design of Pavements, Railways and Guideways; I60: Maintenance;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01519177
• Record Type: Publication
• Report/Paper Numbers: 14-3214
• Files: PRP, TRIS, TRB, ATRI
• Created Date: Mar 24 2014 12:01PM