Life-cycle cost analysis of infrastructure pavement applications in Western Australia

Life-cycle cost analysis (LCCA) is an engineering tool to assist design specification decisionmaking, estimate whole-life cost of civil engineering projects and help clarify sustainable choices. This paper investigates the use, process and applicability of LCCA techniques for construction inWestern...

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Main Authors: Whyte, Andrew, Gayner, L.
Format: Conference Paper
Published: 2013
Online Access:http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/20712
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author Whyte, Andrew
Gayner, L.
author_facet Whyte, Andrew
Gayner, L.
author_sort Whyte, Andrew
building Curtin Institutional Repository
collection Online Access
description Life-cycle cost analysis (LCCA) is an engineering tool to assist design specification decisionmaking, estimate whole-life cost of civil engineering projects and help clarify sustainable choices. This paper investigates the use, process and applicability of LCCA techniques for construction inWestern Australia, and examines relevance with current case-study material. As recycled (waste-arising) construction materials are becoming an increasingly available market resource for new roads, it becomes important to address the (whole) economic impacts in long-term applications of the design specification alternatives that utilise recyclates. Recycled concrete, recycled demolition-arisings and recycled asphalt materials will be compared against their virgin material equivalents over realistic life-cycle periods of 30, 60 and 90 years to assess the extent to which environmental and economic considerations are aligned for WA pavements. Using an empirically calculated discount rate of 6.25% and testing over various life-spans it was found that sustainable (recycled) options are superior to (virgin) specifications when considering the range of alternative pavement specification design-options across the triple-bottom-line criteria of economic, environmental and social factors. The implications of the results of the work conducted stress the benefits and importance of LCCA usage in the construction industry in WA to guide both monetary benefit and environmental sustainability.
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spelling curtin-20.500.11937-207122017-09-13T13:49:37Z Life-cycle cost analysis of infrastructure pavement applications in Western Australia Whyte, Andrew Gayner, L. Life-cycle cost analysis (LCCA) is an engineering tool to assist design specification decisionmaking, estimate whole-life cost of civil engineering projects and help clarify sustainable choices. This paper investigates the use, process and applicability of LCCA techniques for construction inWestern Australia, and examines relevance with current case-study material. As recycled (waste-arising) construction materials are becoming an increasingly available market resource for new roads, it becomes important to address the (whole) economic impacts in long-term applications of the design specification alternatives that utilise recyclates. Recycled concrete, recycled demolition-arisings and recycled asphalt materials will be compared against their virgin material equivalents over realistic life-cycle periods of 30, 60 and 90 years to assess the extent to which environmental and economic considerations are aligned for WA pavements. Using an empirically calculated discount rate of 6.25% and testing over various life-spans it was found that sustainable (recycled) options are superior to (virgin) specifications when considering the range of alternative pavement specification design-options across the triple-bottom-line criteria of economic, environmental and social factors. The implications of the results of the work conducted stress the benefits and importance of LCCA usage in the construction industry in WA to guide both monetary benefit and environmental sustainability. 2013 Conference Paper http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/20712 10.3850/978-981-07-5354-2-CPM-19-284 restricted
spellingShingle Whyte, Andrew
Gayner, L.
Life-cycle cost analysis of infrastructure pavement applications in Western Australia
title Life-cycle cost analysis of infrastructure pavement applications in Western Australia
title_full Life-cycle cost analysis of infrastructure pavement applications in Western Australia
title_fullStr Life-cycle cost analysis of infrastructure pavement applications in Western Australia
title_full_unstemmed Life-cycle cost analysis of infrastructure pavement applications in Western Australia
title_short Life-cycle cost analysis of infrastructure pavement applications in Western Australia
title_sort life-cycle cost analysis of infrastructure pavement applications in western australia
url http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/20712