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Abstract

Construction of highways generates CO2 emissions from a variety of sources, including those from the construction work and embodied carbon in the road building materials. Carbon assessment tools and calculators will allow engineers and designers to estimate the expected emissions from their highways schemes and use the results to inform their design choices to reduce carbon emissions.
Currently in the Highways industry, a number of carbon tools already exist, but are primarily designed for use on the UK’s strategic road network, which makes up only 3% of the total length of road in Great Britain. The aim of this project is to critically analyse and test the suitability of the carbon calculators that exist within the construction industry and determine their suitability in relation to local highways projects.
This aim of this project is achieved through developing a procedure to test and compare the existing carbon tools. This procedure is then used to undertake an experiment on two carbon tools used within the highways industry, using data obtained from a real-world local highway improvement scheme. The results of the experiment are then presented and compared. The parameters that affected the results are investigated, and the suitability of both tools is discussed in relation to local highways schemes.
Finally, based on the experiment undertaken, several improvements to the carbon tools are presented. These improvements, if implemented, will improve the accuracy of the embodied carbon estimations on local road projects, helping designers to better compare designs and improve the carbon efficiency of their schemes.

Course: Civil Engineering - MSc - C0618

Date Deposited: 2023-11-07

URI/permalink: https://library.port.ac.uk/dissert/dis14252.html