Greenhouse warming potential of infrastructure projects

In times of increasing environmental awareness it is important for scientific institutions and engineering practices to target a reduction of greenhouse warming potential. In the past many research projects focused on sustainability of building structures but not of infrastructure projects and related structures. We have assessed the CO₂-equivalents (CO₂E) of processes of the planning and construction of roads, bridges and tunnels. The influences of longitudinal gradients, cross sections and construction methods have been considered. Additionally every project impacts on traffic, which leads to an increase of emission, so called indirect effects. These indirect effects have to be taken into account over the whole life cycle. As an example an existing alignment and different alternatives to same have been analysed. To allow a better understanding of the relevance of CO₂E-emissions of construction processes, the CO₂E-emissions have been evaluated monetarily. Initial results show a small influence of CO₂E-emission costs of production processes in comparison to life cycle costs. Indirect effects have a large range of dispersion and could lead to a lower level of the CO₂E-emission costs.