LCA Research Brief: Mapping of Excess Fuel Consumption

Mapping excess fuel consumption on Virginia highways
December 5, 2014

The brief describes a new approach that transportation agencies could use to calculate the excess fuel consumption* of a highway network due to the material and structural properties, as well as the roughness, of pavements. Researchers integrated the results of the analysis into the Geographical Information System (GIS) for the State of Virginia, allowing for a map-based illustration of fuel consumption magnitudes at different locations throughout the highway network. They found that only 1.3% of the analyzed interstate network is responsible for 10% of greenhouse gas emissions, which means that the rehab of those few lane miles results in significant improvement. MORE

* Relative to a perfectly smooth, non-deflecting pavement