A Cradle-to-Gate Framework for Optimizing Material Production in Road Construction

In road construction, large quantities of raw materials are extracted and transported during several stages of its life cycle. Consequently, processing and preparation of raw materials for different purposes inevitably result in considerable amount of energy use and emissions of air pollutants. The Swedish Transportation Administration has an ambition to minimize environmental impacts from transport infrastructure projects by, for instance, reducing the energy use and emissions of greenhouse gases. This can be achieved by implementing specific strategies and techniques during various stages throughout the life cycle of the project. In this paper a framework is proposed to manage the energy use and greenhouse gases emissions from raw materials extraction processes in road construction projects. A prototype is developed based on the framework and demonstrated in a small case study.