Stakeholder views of materials selection for road pavements

The growing prominence of Carbon calculators in the road construction sector has lead to a greater general awareness of the sustainability issues associated with road pavement materials and their selection. This paper presents results from a series of semi-structured interviews conducted with key stakeholders from the highways industry, which were used to gain an understanding of industry perceptions on the use of sustainability assessment in the selection of highway materials for road construction. The stakeholders consulted ranged from government bodies and trade associations to contractors and academics. Analysis of the interviews has shown that there is a clear focus on Carbon/Climate change. The frequency with which various topics were mentioned has been used in the analysis to produce a basic hierarchy of sustainability drivers for the highways industry. A comparison is also made against the existing civil engineering environmental quality assessment and award scheme (Ceequal) categories to identify gaps and areas of consensus to further enhance Ceequal. The paper concludes that several factors should be taken forward within any on-going development of LCA (Life Cycle Assessment) frameworks or Carbon assessment methodologies for road construction projects including, Carbon (footprinting)/Climate change, Maintenance phase considerations and broader Environmental Issues.