Sustainability… in the eye of the Beholder

A (recently retired) practitioners view

Georgene Geary, P.E.GGfGA Engineering, LLC

Green and Blue Highways SymposiumMid-Atlantic Transportation Sustainability University Transportation Center (MATS-UTC)

May 6, 2015

OverviewSustainability and Reality

Materials: GHG, LCA, LCCA

Sustainable Pavements

Some Concepts in Sustainable Materials - Examples

Back to Reality

Sustainability & Reality• Some sales people say

everything they sell is sustainable

• Sustainable doesn't always = cheaper

• Some want results within 4 years

• Can be subjective

• Can be affected by local conditions (context sensitive)

• It can take years to tell if something is really sustainable

Are all these GREEN rating programs really…sustainable?

INVEST

Green Roads

GreenLIT

ES

STA

RS

SIPRS

I-LAST

ST

EE

D

BE2ST

sustainabilityE

nvironment

SITES

LEED

Envision

Eco

nom

ical

Comparisons are out there for rating systems

…but they don’t necessarily agree

GDOT RP 10-13

An Analysis of Green Road Rating Systems GTI, 2013

MPC 14-268

Framework for Assessing Rating Systems

Multi-Plains Consortium, 2014

TRB 15-3375

Identifying Scope and Priorities of Rating Systems

TRB, 2015

Materials and GHG, LCA, LCCA

ASPHALT: PaveGREEN, NAPA EPD program, Greenhouse gas calculator driveasphalt.org/sustainability

CONCRETE: Pavements4life, MIT Concrete Sustainability hub, NRMCA carbon calculator

sustainableconcrete.org

STEEL: Green Buildinghttp://www.steelframing.org/sustainability.html

RecycleReuseReduce

FHWA RealCost

Guidelines are Coming Out

2015 - Towards Sustainable Pavement Systems:

A Reference Document

2013 -NCHRP Synthesis 435Volumes 1-8Recycled Materials and Byproducts

2012 – NCHRP RRD 365Sustainable Pavement Maintenance

AASHTO R 65 - Evaluating the Engineering and Environmental Suitability of Recycled Materials (Originally designated PP 56 in 2006)

Sustainable Pavements

• Materials• Design• Construction• Use-Phase• Maintenance-Rehabilitation• End of Life• LCCA, LCA and Rating Systems

(FHWA-HIF-15-002, Towards Sustainable Pavement Systems)

The Future? Environmental Product Declarations

From Chapter 10, FHWA-HIF-15-002, sample EPD for a concrete mix design

Education and Ingenuity are Sustainable

Sustainable can take Time

Sustainable is not necessarily sustainable everywhere

Mandating specifics can be detrimental to Sustainability

Sustainability Concepts to Explore:

Concrete & Education

• Georgia has allowed recycled PCC to be substituted for virgin Graded Aggregate Base since at least 1997 (not mandated)

• Invited recycler to speak at Contractors annual meeting in 2005

• PCC recycling increased up to over 500K tons in 2010

FY2006 FY2007 FY2008 FY2009 FY2010 FY2011 FY20120

100,000

200,000

300,000

400,000

500,000

600,000

47,502

87,137

182,268

315,904

531,847

54,939

117,821

Total Tons of Recycled Concrete GAB Placed Per Fiscal Year

Recycled PCC & Ingenuity

• 2014: Interstate16 100% recycled PCC shoulders• Contractor had option of PCC, RCC, or Asphalt for shoulders• Contractor requested use of 100% recycled PCC

Asphalt & Time

• 1981- 1st Interstate pavement placed in Georgia w/RAP

• 1993 GDOT Standard Specification for RAP

• 2012- Tweaked requirements to make RAP mixes more sustainable

~ 20 years

Micromill & No $• Georgia started using in 2007

• Allows GDOT to “reuse” Stone Matrix Asphalt (SMA)

• But, Uses NO Recycled materials

1.5” SMA

Regular HMA

~1” open-graded surface mix

2” SMA

Regular HMA

Conventional Micromill

Crumb Rubber & Mandates

• 1990’s- Crumb rubber mandated• Early Pavement Failures• Bad Experience with pavement ‘eating’

vehicle tires

• 2007- Polymer shortage caused Georgia to look at crumb rubber again

• Over ½ million tons placed since 2007• Ongoing research to evaluate

& Necessity

Back To Reality

• Vetted guidelines related to the environmental issues

• Options to fit the Situation

• Trust to make the Right Decisions

To be part of a Sustainable Solution, Materials Practitioners Need: