Life‐Cycle‐Assessment of a wildlife bridge: influence of the structural design on the carbon emissions

In 2020, 37% of the global share of CO2eq. emissions were attributed to the construction sector. More recently, awareness has been raised on embodied carbon, where emissions from materials and products must be urgently addressed to ensure sustainable constructions. To assess the environmental impacts of a project, a Life‐Cycle‐Assessment (LCA) can be applied: it is a science‐based standardized methodology for quantifying the environmental impacts. It can be used to measure and provide insights to reduce the embodied carbon of constructions over their life.

The present publication details the LCA of a wildlife bridge built in France. In addition to the original bridge structure, other structural systems are considered including different materials such as steel and reinforced concrete. The boundary of the LCA is a cradle‐to‐cradle analysis. The life cycle inventory (LCI) is composed of environmental product declarations (EPD) according to EN 15804.

The influence of the structural design on the bridge's global warming potential (GWP) emissions and the influence of LCA assumptions (for example, EOL scenarios) are analyzed. This publication aims to support a holistic approach for bridge LCA and help identify the opportunities that can result from implementing sustainable construction strategies.