Road construction methods – sustainability assessment (SABINA)

Project SABINA (Sustainability Analysis of Road Pavement Constructions) assesses the sustainability of road pavement constructions. It is based on a holistic life cycle approach that takes the three pillars of sustainability into account – environmental, social and economic – throughout the entire life cycle. 

The main objective of SABINA is to provide a holistic assessment framework for road pavements on high-level road networks, identifying and giving special consideration to the criteria of greenhouse gas potential, energy consumption and durability. The assessment framework enables the evaluation of the entire road structures— pavement construction and subgrade; all construction methods—according to ecological, technical, economic, and socially relevant aspects. Nationally and internationally available data sets are used to quantify the influencing factors and, if necessary, supplemented by our own data sets from previous projects.

The assessment framework includes all specifications, decisions, and structural implementations of road pavements, as well as their removal and reuse in construction or maintenance treatments (from rehabilitation to complete reconstruction). It covers the entire life cycle of a road pavement. It also includes the effects on road user emissions that may arise during the implementation of construction measures or that are the result of improved pavement conditions. The results are implemented in the SABINA Online LCA Tool. This will be a routinely applicable, database-driven decision-making tool for the comprehensive and holistic quantification of the entire road structure (pavement construction  and subgrade; all construction methods) with regard to ecological, economic, and socially relevant aspects, in accordance with the three pillars of sustainability, taking technical requirements and boundary conditions into account. 

The underlying database and calculation tool are systematic, modular, and clearly structured and can be adapted to the current state of knowledge at any time. This means that users have the option of updating the SABINA Online LCA Tool . In addition, a catalog of Best Practices for construction methods will be created. Users can specify construction-specific factors such as construction method and materials and generate economic, ecological, and socially relevant (e.g., in terms of noise emissions) results.
 

•   TU Braunschweig (ISBS) – D
•   Umtech AG – CH (Projektkoordination)

Research Center Building and Design