This Application requires that your browser have Javascript enabled. To enable Javascript locate the setting in your browser's options or preferences.

See the bock below to enable Javascript in your browser

CCBot/2.0

Roadscience - Rating Road Green-ness

RoadScience Photo courtesy of Wirtgen America, Inc. by Tom Kuennen, Contributing Editor Cold milling of aged asphalt produces reclaimed asphalt pavement (RAP), and is encouraged by various environmental sustainability rating systems Roadway Environmental Ratings: What’s Best for Your Agency? There’s a choice of programs to use in rating sustainable roads T he never-ending quest to deﬁne which pavements and highways can be considered “environmentally sustainable” has gotten a lot harder, just as it’s gotten easier. It’s gotten easier because state, county and municipal agencies can choose from a variety of programs that enable them to evaluate and rate the “green-ness” of a particular pavement. But it’s gotten harder because, well, there are so many to choose from. Unlike the nationally recognized LEED system – which is the only accepted environmental certiﬁcation program for buildings and structures – there are a variety of different evaluation/certiﬁcation programs for roads or civil engineering structures at international, national and state levels. For example, even as the Transportation Association of Canada’s Green Guide for Roads poses sustainability guidance for road construction for Canada, the Ontario Ministry of Transportation is promulgating its own GreenPave points- based rating system. Similarly, the New York State DOT has developed the GreenLITES (Green Leadership In Transportation Environmental Sustainability) pavement rating system, and in 2011Illinois introduced I-LAST, the Illinois-Livable and Sustainable Transportation rating guide. Even so, in the United States Greenroads is the national leader by its entrenched position. Established in 2010, the Greenroads Foundation is developer of the Greenroads Rating System, and the foundation manages the certiﬁcation process for sustainable roadway and bridge construction projects in the United States and internationally. Greenroads rates a project’s sustainable elements in seven categories: Project Requirements, Environment and Water, Access and Equity, Construction Activities, Materials and Resources, Pavement Technologies, and Custom Credits, which are intended to accommodate good ideas that don’t fall under the previous headings. Accumulated points will position a project for one of four levels of certiﬁcation: Bronze, Silver, Gold and Evergreen. Better Roads November 2012 21

Back | Next