ABSTRACT
Life cycle assessment (LCA) and life cycle cost analysis (LCCA) are the main pillars of pavement sustainability. Even though they are usually considered separately, both LCA and LCCA are needed for decision making. This study uses an Illinois-developed LCA/LCCA tool to analyze two sections on the Illinois Tollway. The first scenario is a 12.8-mi-long section of the Tri-State Tollway in Chicago, Illinois. The initial year of the contract is 2001, and the analysis period is 60 years. The second scenario is a 4.7-mi-long section of the Ronald Reagan Tollway in Chicago. The initial year of the contract is 2004, and the analysis period is 78 years. Both emissions and costs (agency and user) during the analysis period are considered. A sensitivity analysis was conducted to assess the effect of changing traffic, international roughness index (IRI) progression rate and discount rate. Both scenarios showed that more than 70% of the emissions are due to fuel consumption; and pavement roughness is one of the key factors that controls costs and emissions.
