Assessment of the energy impacts of improving highway infrastructure materials

Abstract

gonne National Laboratory has conducted a study to ascertain the relative importance of improved highway materials compared to vehicle energy consumption on US energy consumption. Energy savings through an improved highway infrastructure can occur in at least three ways. First, replacing aged and failing materials with improved and advanced materials can produce energy ``use`` savings. Second, advances in materials science can yield energy efficiency gains in the production of infrastructure materials. Third, using new or improved transportation-infrastructure materials that have longer service life reduces the energy expended in producing replacement materials and installing or repairing facilities. The Argonne study finds that energy savings from highway materials improvements are on the order of 0.1 {times} 10{sup 12} to 2.1 {times} 10{sup 12} Btu. This savings is relatively small compared with energy savings from improvements in vehicle fuel economy. Several infrastructure improvement scenarios were examined, with results that were highly dependent on the assumptions. Reducing traffic congestion, particularly in high-traffic-volume locations, produces major energy savings compared with the other scenarios.