TechBrief

OCTOBER 2014 FHWA-HIF-15-001

LIFE CYCLE ASSESSMENT OF PAVEMENTS

INTRODUCTION
An ever-growing number of agencies, companies, organizations,
institutes, and governing bodies are embracing principles of sustainability
in managing their activities and conducting business. This approach
focuses on the overarching goal of emphasizing key life cycle economic,
environmental, and social factors in the decision-making process.
Sustainability considerations are not new, and in fact have often been
considered indirectly or informally, but in recent years increased efforts
are being made to quantify sustainability effects and to incorporate them
into the decision-making process in a more systematic and organized
fashion.

One instrument that can be used to quantify the environmental

performance of sustainability considerations is life cycle assessment
(LCA). LCA is a structured methodology that quantifies environmental
impacts over the full life cycle of a product or system, including impacts
that occur throughout the supply chain. The purpose of this Tech Brief is
to describe LCA principles, define the main elements of LCA, and provide
an introductory overview of how LCA may be applied to pavements.

ORIGIN, PRINCIPLES AND PURPOSE OF LCA

Origin of LCA
The precursors to LCA were originally developed in the late 1960s to
analyze air, land, and water emissions from solid wastes. The principles
were later broadened to include energy, resource use, and chemical
emissions, with a focus on consumer products and product packaging
rather than complex infrastructure systems (Hunt and Franklin 1996;
Guinée 2012). Between 1990 and 2000, developments shifted to the
creation of full-fledged impact assessment methods and the
standardization of methods by the International Organization for
Standardization (ISO) (SAIC 2006). In the transportation area, LCA
topics have included assessing asphalt binder and cement production,
evaluating low carbon fuel standards for on-road vehicles, examination of
transportation networks, and examination of interactions between
transportation infrastructure, vehicles, and human behavior.

Principles and Purpose of LCA

LCA provides a comprehensive approach to evaluating the total
environmental burden of a particular product (such as a ton of aggregate)
or more complex systems of products or processes (such as a
transportation facility or network), examining all the inputs and outputs
over its life cycle, from raw material production to the end of the product’s
life. A generic model of the life cycle of a product for LCA is shown in
figure 1. As can be seen, the life cycle begins at the acquisition of raw
materials, proceeds through several distinct stages including material
processing, manufacturing, use, and terminates at the end-of-life (EOL).
2 Life Cycle Assessment of Pavements

that considers system-wide effects and the entire life

cycle.

The application of LCA to pavement in the U.S. is still in

its early stages, and there are a number of uncertainties
in the data and details of approaches that remain to be
addressed as its use and application evolves.

LCA STANDARDS
The need to standardize the LCA methodology to ensure
consistency in the process led to the development of the
LCA standards in the International Standards
Organization (ISO) 14000 series (SAIC 2006).
Figure 1. Generic life cycle of a production system for LCA Publication of the initial ISO standards in 1997 resulted
(Kendall 2012). in a commonly accepted standard method for LCA
(delineated by ISO 14040 and 14044 [ISO 2006a; ISO
LCA also accounts for transportation between stages. 2006b]); however, specifics vary greatly from one
This definition of the life cycle is often called “cradle to application to another. Attempts at standardizing the
grave.” LCAs that do not consider the use or EOL LCA procedure for pavements have been made (e.g.,
stages are often referred to as “cradle to gate.” As UCPRC 2010a), but there are currently no government-
illustrated in figure 1, the EOL can include recycling issued guidelines in North America on the use of LCA for
within the product life cycle, remanufacturing, re-use pavement.
without reprocessing, or recycling into the life cycles of
other products. The LCA model tracks materials and Phases in an LCA
energy as inputs to each of these “stages” while tracking
waste and pollution as outputs. These outputs can be As described in the ISO standards, there are four
translated into environmental and social impacts. phases in an LCA study. These phases—Goal and
Scope Definition, Inventory Analysis, Impact
LCA can be used for a variety of purposes, including: Assessment, and Interpretation—are depicted in figure 2
to illustrate the interaction between these phases.
• Identifying opportunities to improve the
environmental performance of products and
production systems at various points in their life
cycle.
• Informing and guiding decision makers in industry,
government, and non-governmental organizations
as part of strategic planning, priority setting, product
or process design selection, and redesign.
• Developing appropriate indicators of environmental
performance of a product or production system; for
example, to implement an eco-labeling scheme (see
EPA 2014; EC 2011), to make an environmental
claim, or to produce an environmental product
declaration (EPD), which is described later.
Figure 2. Life cycle assessment framework (Kendall 2012).
Moreover, LCA can be used to identify trade-offs in
decision making as it allows for the evaluation of all life Goal and Scope Definition
cycle stages and multiple environmental indicators. If
not all life cycle stages are included, or if not all The first phase in an LCA is to determine its goal and
appropriate environmental indicators are studied, then scope. Goals will differ between agencies depending on
policies, regulations, and specifications intended to their overall environmental objectives, policies, laws and
reduce environmental impacts from systems may have regulations, all of which should be based on the
the risk of unintended negative consequences; this risk environmental values of the agency that produces them.
is greatest when changes are made to one part of a Goals must be set by the organization performing the
system or life cycle stage, but the effects of the changes LCA in order to determine the type of study, the scope,
on the rest of the system and the other life cycle stages and the approach for assessing impacts and making
are not evaluated. When properly applied, LCA is an decisions. It is possible that some goals may conflict
approach for investigating the consequences of changes with one another.
 Life Cycle Assessment of Pavements 3

differences in their lives. For example, a 50- to 60-year

analysis period may be appropriate for evaluation of a
LCA Terminology new pavement alternative whereas 20 years might be
Some important terms defined by ISO (2006a) are quite acceptable for evaluation of rehabilitation
summarized below: strategies. Selection of the analysis period is important
because of changes in pavement design, vehicle
Functional Unit – the unit for which the results of an technologies, energy sources and traffic volume and
LCA are reported. A functional unit provides a composition over time. Most LCA studies assume
reference to which the input and output data are current technologies and practices are modeled forward
normalized. It needs to be clearly defined and and remain somewhat constant over time.
measurable. Comparisons can only be made for
results expressed in the same functional unit. A
typical pavement LCA unit is one lane-mile of a given
Inventory Analysis
pavement structure with its associated traffic, climate, The inventory analysis phase is where environmental
etc. flows (inputs of material, energy, and resources, and
Environmental Impact Category – Type of
outputs of waste, pollution, and co-products) are tracked
environmental concern for which life cycle inventory for the system being studied. To perform an inventory
analysis results (inputs from nature and output flows analysis, a model of the process being analyzed is set
to nature such as extraction of material and energy up, with definitions of the functional unit and system
resources, emissions to air, water and land and final boundaries. The flows of materials and energy into the
waste) may be assigned. The selection of impact process model are then identified and calculated (for
categories is important as it defines which example, “Material Processing” in figure 1), as are the
environmental considerations are going to be waste and pollution flows coming out of the process.
addressed. The data that are developed for the process are the life
cycle inventory (LCI). For a typical asphalt or concrete
Feedstock Energy – Heat of combustion of a raw plant, flows include the use of electricity and fuel oil or
material input that is not used as an energy source to natural gas; the use of aggregates, binder, and water;
a product system, expressed in terms of higher
and the waste flow such as emissions and other waste
heating value or lower heating value. This is an
per mix design. The LCI for these are referred to as
important term when dealing with asphalt binder as it
is oil based but not used as a fuel.
primary, or foreground, data sources. Primary data are
typically collected with as much specific data as
Allocation – Partitioning environmental flows possible. All of these have to be traced back to the
between the product system under study and one or origin, which are referred to as background data
more other product systems. This is most relevant processes. For aggregates this is the quarry processes,
for valuing the production and use of recycled, co- for natural gas they are the processes of setting up the
product, and waste materials (RCWMs) in pavement gas well and delivering the gas, and so on.
LCA.
Regarding the development of regionally applicable
data, there are several approaches, including
The scope of an LCA defines the system boundary of assembling existing public source data, purchasing
analysis (essentially what life-cycle stages and commercially available data and applying appropriate
processes are included in the LCA), establishes the regional and temporal corrections, or directly collecting
geographic and temporal boundaries of analysis, data. In practice, a combination of these approaches is
describes the functional unit of analysis, and determines often necessary. Some examples of approaches to data
the required quality of data. Again, all of these depend collection are included in recent literature (e.g., Weiland
on the subject and the intended use of the LCA. The and Muench 2010; Mukherjee, Stawowy, and Cass
goal and scope definition determines key features of the 2013; Santero et al. 2011; Wang et al. 2012).
analysis, including the depth and the breadth of the
study, which can vary depending on the overall goal. Commercially available LCI databases are updated
periodically based on the development of specific LCA
The analysis period defines the period over which the studies. That being said, the data requirements—and
pavement is assessed. It should typically be a function hence the need for regional data—are tied to the goal
of the studied system, and the analysis period should be and scope of the LCA. No matter what data are used, it
1 to 1.5 times the longest life among compared systems. is important to report the type of data and their quality in
If the LCA examines a particular pavement design or order to identify which data are influencing the
rehabilitation process, then the time to the next conclusions of the assessment, and to perform
rehabilitation or reconstruction of equal or greater scale sensitivity analysis on those inventory datasets that are
intensity may be one way to identify the life used to the most influential. General guidance on data quality
determine the analysis period, with different approaches and data quality indicators is available from ISO (2006a;
available for comparing alternatives with large 2006b).
4 Life Cycle Assessment of Pavements

Impact Assessment Uncertainty in LCA comes from data variability, input

uncertainty, and model imprecision (ISO 2006b).
The purpose of the third phase of the LCA, impact
Pavement LCAs should include an analysis of
assessment, is to better understand the environmental
uncertainty in the functional unit, analysis period, LCI
significance of the LCI by translating environmental flows
data, system boundary assumptions, and impact
into environmental impacts that are presented in
assessment. Some examples of uncertainty include
different impact categories, typically in terms of:
limitations in the data used, uncertainty in predicting
future changes in traffic and technology, and allocation
• Impacts on people (humans). (discussed later) of impacts for recycled materials.
• Impacts on nature (ecosystems).
ISO 14044 states that the most important aim of LCA
• Depletion of resources. studies is that they be reported transparently so readers
can review the goals, scope, and conclusions of the
LCA studies usually include a selection of impact study. ISO 14044 also requires an independent review
categories that are most relevant to the specific project for LCA studies that compare alternatives, and a review
goal and scope, and can range from narrowly focusing panel is typically convened for that purpose.
on energy and greenhouse gas emissions to a broader
set of impact categories. The most commonly used Product Category Rules and Environmental Product
selection of impact categories in the U.S. is the TRACI Declarations
impact assessment methodology developed by the EPA,
the most recent version (TRACI v2.0) of which was Detailed reporting frameworks for LCA are used in the
released in 2012 (Bare 2011; EPA 2012). The most development of an environmental product declaration
widely used impact assessment method world-wide is (EPD), which is essentially a declared LCA for a product.
the CML methodology (Guinée et.al. 2002), with the Somewhat akin to nutritional labels, EPDs present key
most recent update from April 2013. The TRACI and environmental impact data in a clear and concise fashion
CML categories largely overlap. A list of typical impact that allows for ready comparisons. In the development
categories is shown in table 1. of the EPD, a review is performed in accordance with the
related product category rule (PCR) document, although
Table 1. Typical LCA impact categories. assumptions allowed in the PCR can still introduce
variability. EPDs for some pavement materials are
Group Impact Categories under development, and in the next several years it is
Energy use Fuel: non-renewable, renewable expected that EPDs for the main pavement material
constituents (e.g., aggregate, cement, asphalt binder,
Resource use Resources: non-renewable, renewable
co-products, admixtures, additives, sealants, dowel bars,
Emissions Climate Change geotextiles, reinforcing steel) will become available.
Ozone layer depletion Eventually, it is likely that EPDs will be developed for
Acidification
materials that are made from various combinations of
Tropospheric Ozone
Eutrophication these constituents, or even for complete pavement
structures (most likely only in the design-build or design-
Toxicity Human toxicity: respiratory, carcinogenic, build-operate project delivery schemes).
non-carcinogenic
Ecotoxicity: fresh water, marine water, soil
Key Challenges for Pavement LCA
Water Fresh water use
Waste Hazardous, Non-hazardous
Some of the key challenges identified for the practical
use of LCA, written for buildings but currently applicable
to pavements, include (Georgia Tech 2010):
Interpretation and Transparency
General Considerations • Data collection, including the availability of readily
accessible, complete, and regionally/temporally
In the interpretation phase, the overall results are applicable data, and the cost of data collection.
summarized and discussed as a basis for conclusions,
recommendations, and decision making in accordance • Data quality, including establishment of standards
with the goal and scope definition. Proper LCA practice for collecting, reporting, and allocation of data.
includes an interpretation where the results are • Issues with impact assessment methods, including
presented for the functional unit, the major contributions consistency and updating of impact assessment
are identified and explained in terms of where the methods as understanding of impacts evolves. For
impacts are pronounced, the data uncertainty and example, impacts such as global climate change
variations are noted, and sensitivity analyses are and ozone depletion are estimated based on
conducted for the most important methodological internationally established methods, while methods
assumptions. for other impact categories are less consistent.
 Life Cycle Assessment of Pavements 5

• Issues with weighting of impacts in decision-making, asphalt or concrete plants), and transportation of raw or
with the influence of different impact categories on finished materials between stages. As is expected in all
final decisions left to the users. This can be LCAs, the inputs to these processes should each be
confusing when many impacts are considered in the modeled from a life-cycle perspective and should include
final decision process, and also when different the background processes (i.e., in addition to accounting
alternatives have conflicting impact rankings. for the foreground process of direct energy consumption,
the LCI of the background processes for the production
of the energy should be included).
Product Category Rules Construction, Preservation, Maintenance, and
A Product Category Rule (PCR) document defines the Rehabilitation
rules for a product LCA and defines the The modeling of these stages requires that the following
Environmental Product Declaration (EPD) format.
processes be considered: equipment mobilization and
The PCR is developed through a formal process that
demobilization (transport of equipment to and from site);
involves all stakeholders (e.g., producers, purchasers,
regulators) and is owned and managed by the equipment use at the site; transport of materials to the
Program Operator. site, including water; transport of materials from the site
for final disposal, reuse, or recycling; energy used on
Environmental Product Declarations site (e.g., lighting for nighttime construction); and
An EPD, as defined in the ISO 14025 standard (ISO changes to traffic flow, including work zone speed
2006c), is a declared LCA for a product and is a form changes and delay and diversions where applicable. In
of certification. EPDs can be issued on a specific addition, changes to traffic over time should be
product from a specific producer, but may also be considered, if not in the baseline modeling then in a
issued for a generic product from a group of sensitivity analysis. These changes should include
manufacturers (such as an association). traffic growth and changes to fleet composition (vehicle
type mix and technology) (UCPRC 2010a). Many
The basis for performing the LCA to produce an EPD studies exclude equipment manufacturing and capital
is the PCR, described above. An independent third investments in construction-related production facilities.
party performs a verification of the LCA and EPD,
That is an acceptable practice, but its exclusion or
after which the Program Operator issues the EPD if it
inclusion must be explicitly stated.
complies with the PCR.

If all pavement products had EPDs based on well- Use

designed PCRs, pavement LCA would benefit
Figure 4 indicates various pavement characteristics and
tremendously in terms of improved quality and
reduced cost. their impacts on the use stage, many of which are the
focus of current research. These characteristics and
their effects are summarized below:

PAVEMENT LIFE-CYCLE STAGES • Pavement roughness, macrotexture, and structural

response all can affect vehicle fuel economy, and as
The pavement life cycle includes the material production, a result have significant environmental impacts.
design, construction (which includes new construction as
well as preservation, maintenance, and rehabilitation), • Pavement surface texture, permeability, and other
use, and end-of-life stages. Pavement design plays a characteristics affect noise generated from the tire-
unique role, as it determines the materials used, the pavement interaction. This may impact humans
pavement structure, future preservation, maintenance both in vehicles and within the acoustical range of
and rehabilitation activities, and pavement longevity. the vehicles operating on the pavement. In addition,
These stages and some typical inputs and outputs for surface texture and permeability affect surface
pavement are shown in figure 3, with additional friction and hydroplaning, which in turn can influence
discussion provided in the following sections. pavement safety.
• The permeability of the pavement system influences
Material Production
stormwater runoff and surface friction. Pavements
Broadly speaking, modeling the material production that are partially or fully permeable can reduce the
stage requires that each material input to the pavement peak flow rate by holding precipitation within the
system be characterized by an LCI that includes the pavement and slowly releasing it to the environment.
following processes: raw material acquisition, material This can also affect pollution flow into receiving
production (all transformation processes from raw water bodies and the resultant temperatures of
material to product), mixing processes (for example, in those waters.
6 Life Cycle Assessment of Pavements

Figure 3. Pavement life-cycle stages (UCPRC 2010a).

 Life Cycle Assessment of Pavements 7

asphalt pavement. In this case, the question arises as to

how much of the environmental benefit is allocated to
the older pavement (or to the industry producing the
waste) and how much to the new pavement being
constructed. Moreover, allocation issues also transcend
across industries; for example, the use of fly ash is a
“waste” generated from the burning of coal in electrical
power plants yet is a desirable cementitious material
used to replace portland cement in concrete.

Although there are several methods of allocation, there

is currently no consensus on how to perform these
allocations for the recycling of pavement materials. A
general consensus among LCA practitioners and those
involved in evaluating products and systems is that the
Figure 4. Pavement characteristics and influences on use- allocation rules should be set up to address the
stage objective. following:
• The albedo (reflectance), heat capacity, and thermal • Incentivize practices that reduce environmental
conductivity of the pavement all can affect the impact.
absorption of energy from the sun and the emission
of reflected and thermal energy from the pavement, • Prevent double counting of credits or the omission of
which can potentially have both negative and important items.
positive impacts on energy consumption through
• Provide fairness between industries by reflecting as
building and vehicle cooling/heating systems, air
closely as possible what is actually happening.
quality, and human health (depending on a number
of factors). For some applications, the albedo of the • Be transparent so that all parties can understand
pavement may also have an impact on the energy how allocation is applied and how it influences the
needed for lighting for nighttime safety and the results.
visibility of pavement markings.
MOVING FORWARD WITH A PAVEMENT LCA
There are trade-offs that must be considered within
many of these decisions, including important safety Detailed step-by-step instructions for a conducting a
issues. It must be recognized that many of the use complete LCA—but without specifics regarding
stage effects are not currently well quantified and thus application to pavement—are presented in an EPA
considerable uncertainty exists, particularly when document (SAIC 2006) and in a similar document from
considered over long analysis periods (50 years or the European Environment Agency (Jensen et al. 1997).
more). An initial framework for pavement LCA has been
developed (UCPRC 2010a), and a number of studies
End-of-Life and symposiums (UCPRC 2010b; IFSTTAR and CSTB
2012) addressing specific pavement LCA issues have
Often during rehabilitation, as well as full reconstruction been hosted. In addition, case studies using improved
at EOL, materials become available for recycling and LCA models have been performed to address specific
reuse (or for disposal). Just as in the other life-cycle questions, such as improving the sustainability of
stages, information is collected for equipment use and concrete pavements (Santero, Masanat, and Horvath
related fuel consumption, the reuse of materials, and the 2011), identifying the net effects of maintaining smooth
“production” of reused materials like reclaimed asphalt pavement and the improved fuel economy of vehicles
pavement (RAP) or recycled concrete. These materials using smoother pavement (Wang et al. 2012), and the
are typically used in new pavement construction projects reconstruction/rehabilitation of existing freeways
either in the base or the pavement layers. In rare (Weiland and Muench 2010). These case studies reflect
circumstances, materials may be transported to a the application of more standardized practice for
landfill. pavement LCA and can provide a starting point for
developing an approach to use LCA to answer important
In LCA, this poses a challenge in how to partition life cycle environmental questions pertaining to
impacts and benefits to the originating pavement project pavements.
and the receiving pavement project, with the process of
partitioning impacts referred to as “allocation.” One Although there are no generally accepted LCA tools for
example is the partitioning of the benefits associated pavements in the U.S., there are a number of
with the use of RAP, which can be used in significant commercially available LCA software (for example, Gabi
quantities to replace aggregate and binder in new and SimaPro are commercially available databases and
8 Life Cycle Assessment of Pavements

tools, and Athena and PE-2 were developed with have a reduced environmental impact (Harvey et al.
industry and government funding) that include LCI 2013).
datasets for pavement that can be used to develop LCA
models. The FHWA has not reviewed and does not SUMMARY
endorse any LCA or LCI data sets at this time. A
number of other tools are being developed in North Decision making regarding potential changes in
America, and it can be expected that these will be pavement practice to improve environmental
available within the next several years. These will likely sustainability is a complex and difficult undertaking. The
be substantially improved once a standardized application of LCA can help define pavement systems to
framework is developed and resources are committed to support decision making regarding changes to policies
addressing the primary sources of lack of consensus and practices to reduce the impacts of pavements on
previously noted. humans and the environment (and often reduce cost as
well), while identifying potential unintended negative
consequences. Full LCA requires access to relevant
APPROACHES FOR IMPLEMENTATION OF LCA
data sets and/or software, which are currently limited
“THINKING”
and generic; however, it is expected that LCA tools for
LCA results are currently not utilized for procurement pavement decision making will emerge in the near future
purposes in the design-bid-build (low-bid) project as the understanding of the process improves and data
delivery system used in most of North America, although become more available. Furthermore, it is anticipated
they are being used in some European countries. that over the next several years there will be greater
Another use for LCA is to apply consequential analyses standardization of pavement LCA frameworks and
to identify the effects of making changes in a project or practices, and improvements in LCI data as PCRs and
policy. The following are some steps that can be taken EPDs become more commonplace. Applications of
to begin implementing LCA concepts into the decision- pavement LCA are expected to expand and be used for
making process: both policy and practice, and will require further
development in the areas of impact assessment and
1. Identify questions to be answered and specific handling of uncertainty.
environmental goals to be achieved. In many cases
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Christiansen, S. Berendsen, J. Elkington, and F. van Department of Transportation, Sacramento, CA.
Dijk. 1997. Life Cycle Assessment (LCA), A Guide to
Weiland, C. D. and S. T. Muench. 2010. Life Cycle
Approaches, Experiences and Information Sources.
Assessment of Portland Cement Concrete Interstate
Environmental Issues Series No. 6. European
Highway Rehabilitation and Replacement. WA-RD
Environment Agency. (Web Link).
744.4. Washington State Department of Transportation,
Olympia, WA. (Web Link)
10 Life Cycle Assessment of Pavements

Contact—For more information, contact:

Federal Highway Administration (FHWA)

Office of Asset Management, Pavements and Construction
Gina Ahlstrom (Gina.Ahlstrom@dot.gov)

Researcher—This TechBrief was developed by John Harvey (University of California, Davis), Joep Meijer
(theRightenvironment, Inc.), and Alissa Kendall (University of California, Davis) and prepared under FHWA’s
Sustainable Pavements Program (DTFH61-10-D-00042). Applied Pavement Technology, Inc. of Urbana, Illinois
served as the contractor to FHWA.

Distribution—This Tech Brief is being distributed according to a standard distribution. Direct distribution is being
made to the Divisions and Resource Center.

Availability—This Tech Brief may be found at http://www.fhwa.dot.gov/pavement.

Key Words—life cycle assessment, life cycle inventory, environmental impact assessment, asphalt pavements,
concrete pavements

Notice—This Tech Brief is disseminated under the sponsorship of the U.S. Department of Transportation in the
interest of information exchange. The U.S. Government assumes no liability for the use of the information contained
in this document. The U.S. Government does not endorse products or manufacturers. Trademarks or manufacturers’
names appear in this report only because they are considered essential to the objective of the document.

Quality Assurance Statement—The Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) provides high-quality information to
serve Government, industry, and the public in a manner that promotes public understanding. Standards and policies
are used to ensure and maximize the quality, objectivity, utility, and integrity of its information. FHWA periodically
reviews quality issues and adjusts its programs and processes to ensure continuous quality improvement.

OCTOBER 2014 FHWA-HIF-15-001