Challenges in Meeting Data Needs for Use of Environmental Product Declarations in Pavement Design and Construction: State of Practice and Future Scope

The work presented in this report is part of Federal Highway Administration’s (FHWA’s) ongoing efforts to support the development of datasets that will provide convenient access to comprehensive, reliable, and transparent lifecycle inventories for highway construction materials. The FHWA Sustainable Pavements Program has been working toward applying a lifecycle-assessment (LCA) method for evaluating environmental impacts associated with pavement design and construction and has produced a framework that addresses the fundamental goal and scope of conducting pavement LCAs This framework has laid the foundation for the development of product category rules (PCRs) for pavement construction materials and use of environmental product declarations (EPDs) in communicating the impacts of cradle-to-gate LCAs. While this framework is a step in the right direction, it has exposed various challenges associated with producing consistent PCRs and using EPDs to reliably communicate environmental impacts of pavement construction materials. This report documents these challenges and classifies them within technical and organizational contexts. In addition, this report documents the requirements of the recently passed California Assembly Bill (AB) 262 and the experience of the California Department of Transportation (Caltrans) as it prepares to address the challenges of adopting EPDs in practice as an implementing agency for AB 262 and as it prepares to pilot requiring EPDs for a wide range of pavement materials. This report concludes with suggestions to best address identified challenges and to facilitate the smooth adoption of EPDs.

• Record URL:
  https://www.fhwa.dot.gov/publications/research/infrastructure/pavements/20022/20022.pdf
• Summary URL:
  https://www.fhwa.dot.gov/publications/research/infrastructure/pavements/20022/
• Corporate Authors:

  Engineering and Software Consultants, Incorporated

  14123 Robert Paris Court
  Chantilly, VA  United States  20151

  Michigan Technological University, Houghton

  1400 Townsend Drive
  Houghton, MI  United States  49931

  Federal Highway Administration

  Office of Infrastructure Research and Development
  6300 Georgetown Pike
  McLean, VA  United States  22101
• Authors:
  • Mukherjee, Amlan
  • 0000-0001-8250-9246
  • Bhat, Chaitanya
  • 0000-0002-7173-1287
  • Harvey, John
• Publication Date: 2020-2

Language

• English

Media Info

• Media Type: Digital/other
• Edition: Final Report
• Features: Figures; References;
• Pagination: 54p

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Environmental impacts; Life cycle analysis; Pavement design; Paving; Paving materials; State of the practice
• Identifier Terms: California Department of Transportation; Environmental Product Declaration; Product Category Rules
• Geographic Terms: California
• Subject Areas: Construction; Design; Environment; Highways; Pavements;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01729990
• Record Type: Publication
• Report/Paper Numbers: FHWA-HRT-20-022, PDC-0209-01
• Contract Numbers: DTFH6111D00009/0209
• Files: TRIS, ATRI, USDOT
• Created Date: Feb 3 2020 12:23PM