National Transportation Research Board Releases Report: Day-to-Day Practices to Reduce the Carbon Footprint of Asphalt

The article (in this edition of the Blue Top) “Label Program for Low Embodied Carbon Construction Materials” states that our Federal Government is becoming more focused on carbon reduction and recycling in heavy construction. These are quickly becoming driving factors in shaping the future for our industry. This will apply to construction materials, construction processes, and designer will be critical in bringing it all together.

Those responsible for facilitating highway infrastructure construction and maintenance often refer to the “Big 3” materials essential for building and maintaining roads, aggregates, asphalt and concrete. There has been considerable sustainability research on both asphalt and concrete and recently the aggregate world has begun increasing studies of their carbon impacts and how they can be reduced.

In the Commonwealth, the focus for recycling of highway construction materials lies not only within the DOT, but recently VA DEQ and the General Assembly have paid more attention to road construction as a possible avenue to recycle used tires, asphalt shingles, and increasing the amount of recycled asphalt pavements (RAP) in pavements. These are all great ideas and should be considered. They reuse these materials, potentially save money and preserve natural resources. However, legislating or mandating the use of recycled products, conceptually is great vision, we need to not lose sight that structures constructed with newly developed or increased recycled materials need to perform – safely, structurally, and economically. Determining the viability, soundness, and safety of infrastructure that is built with a focus on reducing our carbon footprint is best left to the professional researchers, engineers and scientists that focus on materials and processes utilized to build our highways. Directing or enacting increased recycled products in infrastructure construction without due diligence can potentially be an engineering disaster.  

To keep our members informed, VTCA would like to share a recently released report - Day-to-Day Practices to Reduce the Carbon Footprint of Asphalt from the Transportation Research Board (TRB).   

TRB is one of six divisions within the National Research Council, the primary operating agency of the National Academies of Science. TRB actively engages more than 7,000 engineers, scientists and others in the transportation industry, and is supported by state departments of transportation, as well as the U.S. Department of Transportation.

This report provides a lot of insight for asphalt plant operators and aggregate producers to consider as they continually drive to render their operation carbon neutral and their products sustainable in the marketplace. This report even provides valuable information engineers may find useful when designing asphalt mixes or pavement design.

The State of Virginia is quite fortunate when it comes to highway research facilities. VDOT has one of the leading state DOT research institutes with the Virginia Transportation Research Council, VTRC. VTRC has very close working relationships with several of the State Universities, including UVA, JMU, George Mason, ODU, and VA Tech. Both VTCA Aggregates and the VA Asphalt Association work very closely with VTRC and contribute widely on research topics and participate on many VTRC panels and committees.

Additionally, VA Tech and the VA Tech Transportation Institute (VTTI) and Smart Road have extensive and sophisticated highway construction and materials research capabilities.

VTRC, and the VA Asphalt Association have strong relationships with the National Center for Asphalt Technology (NCAT) and their Test Track at Auburn University.

Additionally, the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) Turner-Fairbanks Highway Research Center is in McLean VA. VTCA Aggregates have worked closely with the Turner-Fairbanks Lab on different pavement designs and currently, VTCA Aggregates have several lanes constructed in their Accelerated Loading Facility (ALF).