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Sustainability index for highway construction projects
Alexandria Engineering Journal (2019) xxx, xxx–xxx
H O S T E D BY
Alexandria University
Alexandria Engineering Journal www.elsevier.com/locate/aej www.sciencedirect.com
ORIGINAL ARTICLE
Sustainability index for highway construction projects Ahmed H. Ibrahim, Mohamed A. Shaker * Construction Engineering and Utilities, Zagazig University, Zagazig, Egypt Received 28 October 2019; revised 8 November 2019; accepted 16 November 2019
KEYWORDS Sustainability; Highways; Index; Sustainability index; Evaluation model; Analytical hierarchy process; Rating system
Abstract The focus of this research is to develop a sustainability index for Egyptian highways construction projects that assist highways engineers, mangers and highways agencies to develop sustainable design, construction, operation and maintenance processes for highways. It acts as a sustainable measurement tool for highways construction and maintenance practices to determine the achieved performance of sustainability in the highways construction projects represented by an index. This index reflexes the implementation amount of sustainable choices used throw the highways construction process and even more in the maintenance process. A review on recent studies and available tools on highways sustainability covered to develop appropriate parameters for the indexing model and avoidance of non-compatible parameters with the Egyptian highways nature then performing questionnaire on these model parameters to obtain optimum sustainable choices. In order to get reliable results correlation and reliability analysis performed on the data then extracting the most effective parameters according to Pareto concept then making pairwise comparison questionnaire serving AHP (Analytical Hierarchy Process) requirements to obtain the weights of each parameter in the model. A scorecard for the indexing model developed to get rating system. Case studies presented to demonstrate the use of the sustainability index for Egyptian highways construction projects. Ó 2019 Faculty of Engineering, Alexandria University. Production and hosting by Elsevier B.V. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).
1. Introduction Sustainable highways takes into account development of community and economy within the improvement of the natural environment and minimization of natural resource usage [1].
* Corresponding author. E-mail addresses: [email protected] (A.H. Ibrahim), [email protected] (M.A. Shaker). Peer review under responsibility of Faculty of Engineering, Alexandria University.
The sustainability characteristics of a highways project should be defined and fulfilment during its different lifecycle stages [2]. Sustainability in highways has to be handled with the realization that highways are the pivotal part of transportation infrastructure, and transportation is unavoidable to face human needs. Besides environmental and natural resource requirements handling, the development of a sustainable highways should concentrate on attained access (not just mobility), transport people and goods (not just vehicles), and supplying human with transportation possibilities, such as safe and comfortable roads for walking, cycling, and transit [3].
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.aej.2019.11.011 1110-0168 Ó 2019 Faculty of Engineering, Alexandria University. Production and hosting by Elsevier B.V. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/). Please cite this article in press as: A.H. Ibrahim, M.A. Shaker, Sustainability index for highway construction projects, Alexandria Eng. J. (2019), https://doi.org/ 10.1016/j.aej.2019.11.011
2 Highways construction projects are voracious of energy and material which outcomes a large amount of losses [4]. For example, (7TJ) of energy consumed to construct a 1-km length of typical two-lane road with flexible pavement [5]. A sustainable way to highways construction starts with reusing plan and practical usage of the material already existing on the site. Lack of comparative and quantitative analysis methods prevent rating the economic and environmental advantages, which carried out by using recycled materials in construction. The highways construction industry emphasized three factors throw its history: cost, time, and quality. Those factors do not take into consideration human needs, environmental impacts, or social responsibility risks [6]. Sustainable choices become the base of the transportation section and adopted by many countries transportation authorities. Sustainable choices become the phraseology of transportation sectors, but the adoption of such choices, not fast enough to get over the increasing universal demand of resources [7]. 2. Literature survey Numerous professionals consider the term ‘‘Sustainable highways” an ironic expression as there are huge material consumption and have significant impacts to the natural resources due to highways construction and vehicles use of the highways [8]. When think carefully about the triple bottom line principles, the social and economic benefits that our highways provide must also considered, such as access, mobility, and the economic benefits of transport people and goods. In that situation, highways are a very vital part of our infrastructure and certainly a necessary infrastructure of our society [9]. 2.1. Existing highways sustainability rating systems 2.1.1. GreenLITES (Green Leadership in transportation and environmental Sustainability) GreenLITES developed by New York State department of transportation (DOT) to recognize best practices and to measure their performance by evaluating projects incorporating sustainable choices. Highways construction projects evaluated for sustainable choices on the basis of two certification programs; i.e., a rating program for project designs and a rating program for operations then a certification level (i.e., certified, silver, gold, and evergreen) is assigned according to the total credits received [10]. 2.1.2. Greenroads (University of Washington) Greenroads is a collection of sustainability best choices that can be applied to highways construction. Greenroads consists of required best choices and voluntary best practices. Required best choices should be satisfied as a minimum requirement, while voluntary best practices on the other hand to enhance sustainability [11]. 2.1.3. IN-VEST (Infrastructure voluntary evaluation sustainability Tool) IN-VEST is a web-based self-evaluation tool developed by the Federal Highways Administration to measure the sustainability
A.H. Ibrahim, M.A. Shaker of highways construction. IN-VEST consists of 68 practice based on sustainability best choices. IN-VEST uses other tools (e.g., GreenLITES and Greenroads) as references [12]. 2.1.4. CEEQUAL (Civil engineering environmental quality assessment and award Scheme) CEEQUAL considered as a sustainability evaluation to rate civil engineering, infrastructure and, landscaping. CEEQUAL gives support and raise the achievement of high economic, environmental and social development in all forms of civil engineering through determining and applying best choices. It looking forward to assist clients, designers and contractors to get improved sustainability performance in a project or contract, during specification, design and construction. In addition to its use as a rating system to assess performance, the rigor and flexibility of the scheme can significantly influence project or contract team decisions as they develop, design and construct their work. It stimulate them to consider the sustainability choices they face at the most appropriate time and enables them to achieve the CEEQUAL score their work deserves. CEEQUAL helpful in projects and contracts [13]. 2.1.5. STEED (Sustainable transportation environmental engineering and Design) STEED is a 35-page document organized by categories and checklists. In order to use STEED practices on a project there are four-stage process in which each stage of design, construction, etc. is evaluated. By evaluating a project in each stage of project completion, the overall project intentions can be tracked to determine if the objectives were met, ‘‘and, if not, during which stage things either improved or deteriorated.” While one project may not up hold all of the intentions from the planning to environmental stages, or environmental to design and then construction, the goal of measuring the project at each of the four stages is ultimately to learn where and how sustainable practices can be effectively integrated so that future project sustainability can be maximized. Use of materials is one emphasis of the STEED program [14]. 2.1.6. Envision The Envision is a rating system consists of five sections: Quality of Life, Leadership, Resource Allocation, Natural World, and Climate and Risk. Totally, 60 credits make up this rating system. A 2-page write-up describing each credit includes the intent, levels of achievement, a description of how to achieve a higher level, documentation, and related credits [15]. 2.1.7. I-LAST (Illinois livable and sustainable transportation rating system and Guide) I-LAST consists of two main parts, the first part is the rating system and the second part is a guide developed by Illinois department of transportation to evaluate the sustainability of highways projects. I-LAST consists of over 150 sustainable items. The scoring process of I-LAST consists of three steps: (1) determining the items applicable to a project; (2) evaluating the total points for the achieved items; and (3) scoring by calculating the percentage of achieved points to the total available points [16]. Summary of all previous systems appears in Table 1.
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Sustainability index for highway construction Table 1
3
Summary of literature review.
System
Brief
Reference
GreenLITES Greenroads IN-VEST CEEQUAL STEED Envision
Evaluating projects incorporating sustainable choices. Consists of required best choices and voluntary best practices Web-based self-evaluation tool. Sustainability evaluation to rate civil engineering, infrastructure and, landscaping. A 35-page document organized by categories and checklists. A rating system consists of five sections: Quality of Life, Leadership, Resource Allocation, Natural World, and Climate and Risk. Consists of two main parts, the first part is the rating system and the second part is a guide to evaluate the sustainability of highways projects.
NYSDOT [10] Muench et al. [11] Shepherd, G. [12] Bocchini et al. [13] Ana Athalia [14] Institute for Sustainable Infrastructure [15] Knuth, D., and Fortmann, J. [16]
I-LAST
2.2. Problem statement It is important that highways departments set their targets and key performance indicators at the right level, to realize continuous improvement in sustainability performance [22]. The objective of this paper is to get over this problem by developing extensive sustainability index for Egyptian highways construction projects with certification levels. As the existing systems mentioned in the literature review have
non-applicable elements in the Egyptian highways construction projects nature such as GreenLITES, which is an internal management program for NYSDOT to measure their performance internally and based on their local parameters. 2.3. Aim of the research The overall aim of this research is to develop a practical and easy to use indexing model to aid the implementation, integration and management of sustainability issues in the highways construction wider uptake of the concept in the highways construction industry in Egypt. This could be achieved by developing a model that helps construction companies identify gaps in their corporate sustainability implementation efforts, focus attention on areas for improvement, benchmark their performance with peers and the highways construction industry as a whole. In this context, four key objectives were identified as following. 1. Investigate the concept of sustainability, sustainable development, sustainability indexing, highways sustainability and existing strategic approaches and systems. This objective achieved in the literature review by reviewing recent studies and available tools on highways sustainability to develop appropriate parameters for the indexing model; 2. Identify model parameters and performing questionnaire on these parameters to obtain optimum sustainable choices. In order to get reliable results correlation and reliability analysis performed on the questionnaire data. This objective achieved in the data collection stage by obtaining parameters of the model then performing questionnaire to obtain optimum sustainable parameters then processing of questionnaire data using correlation and reliability analysis to get the most reliable and correlated data;
10% 7%
Academics Industry Organizations
83%
Fig. 1
Research methodology.
Fig. 2
Research centres
Profile of participants.
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A.H. Ibrahim, M.A. Shaker Table 2
Sustainability Index for Highway Construction Projects for design and construction (Score Sheet) [10–16].
Sustainability Index for Highway Construction Projects (Score Sheet) Category
ID
Description
1. Sustainable Alignment
1.1 1_1.1_1 1_1.1_2 1_1.1_3
Alignment Precautions Selecting alignment needs the minimum water structure facilities. Selecting alignment to minimize over all earthworks. Avoidance or the less impact to social resources (historic sites, commercial facilities, residential buildings). Management Precautions Was an Economic Impact Analysis completed? Contractor required to plan and implement quality control measures through construction and for materials required by specifications. Employ Stakeholder involvement techniques to achieve consensus for Preferred Project Alternative. Sensitive Solutions Safe illumination of roadways while minimizing unnecessary and harmful illumination of the surrounding communities. Did the project integrate context sensitive aesthetic treatments?
1.2 1_1.2_1 1_1.2_2 1_1.2_3 1.3 1_1.3_1 1_1.3_2 2. Energy Efficiency and Emissions Reduction
2.1 2_2.1_1 2_2.1_2 2_2.1_3 2_2.1_4 2_2.1_5 2_2.1_6
2.2 2_2.2_1 2_2.2_2 2_2.2_3 2.3 2_2.3_1 2_2.3_2 2_2.3_3 2_2.3_4
2.4 2_2.4_1 2_2.4_2 3. Materials and Resources
3.1 3_3.1_1 3_3.1_2 3_3.1_3 3_3.1_4 3.2 3_3.2_1 3_3.2_2 3_3.2_3 3.3 3_3.3_1
3_3.3_2 3.4
Points (0)or(1)
Reduce Petroleum Consumption Projects better enabling use of public transit through increasing transportation efficiencies for moving freely and conserve fuel. Use of warm mix asphalt. Using LED sign traffic signals and usage of all stop phase. Diamond grinding of existing Portland Cement Concrete pavement. Was at least 50 percent of the total project pavement material (by weight) a low energy material from asphalt production (warm mix asphalt)? Was the warm mix asphalt mixing temperature reduced by a minimum of 50 degrees from that recommended by the binder supplier. Or, it was asphalt from a plant utilizing the energy and fuel savings according to energy star certified . Reduce Electrical Consumption Installation of preemptive signals. Use of LED street lighting. Retrofit existing street sign lighting with LED. Improve Pedestrian and Bicycling Facilities Create new or extend existing sidewalks. Work with local communities to create parallel bike routes where city roads are not suitable for less experienced cyclists. Upgrading pedestrian signals, inclusion of pedestrian buttons and countdown timers. New curbing (where none previously existed), to better define the edge of a roadway and to provide vertical separation of pedestrian facilities; does not include flush, mountable or bridge curbing. Noise Abatement Applying traffic system management techniques to reduce noise levels (e.g. use of truck routes, progressive traffic signals, lowering speeds). Provide planting to improve perceived noise impacts. Reusing 50% or more of topsoil removed for grading reused on site. Major structural elements such as piers reusing if the life cycle feature guaranteed. Reuse of industrial products in pavement materials, ancillary structures, and other roadway elements. Has topsoil been preserved or reused on this project? Recycling Specify rubble or crack and seating of Portland Cement Concrete pavement. Contract provides scrap metals for reuse or recycling. Recycled Asphalt Pavement mixes usage. Environmental Footprint Project design substantially minimizes the need to use hazardous materials (e.g. steel or concrete railroad ties instead of treated wood), or increases the interval before reconstruction must be performed using hazardous or toxic materials, or improves durability of components that contain hazardous substances. Specify locally available natural light weight fill. Sensitive Precautions
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Sustainability index for highway construction
5
Table 2 (continued) Sustainability Index for Highway Construction Projects (Score Sheet) Category
ID
Description
3_3.4_1 3_3.4_2 3_3.4_3
Increase remaining service life through retrofitting existing bridge structures. Designing of long lasting pavement structures to minimize lifecycle costs. Project designs that utilize soil-bioengineering solutions to reliance on plant material for slope protection, rebuilding, stabilization, and erosion control along waterways. Reduction of new pavement materials amount needed.
3_3.4_4 4. Water and Environment
4.1 4_4.1_1 4_4.1_2 4_4.1_3 4_4.1_4 4.2 4_4.2_1 4_4.2_2 4_4.2_3
5. Life Standard
5.1 5_5.1_1 5_5.1_2 5_5.1_3 5.2 5_5.2_1 5_5.2_2 5.3 5_5.3_1
5_5.3_2 5_5.3_3
5_5.3_4
Points (0)or(1)
Water Precautions The project treatment of 80% of the total runoff volume at least. Manage and control the flow based on controlling peak flows or durations from the project site. Were high quality aquatic resources avoided or were the impacts minimized on this project? Shoulders constructed of permeable pavement. Wildlife and Plant Communities Re-establishment and expansion of native vegetation into reclaimed work areas. Environmental third party to monitor and provide quality assurance services and report directly and make recommendations to the regulatory and lead agencies. Were high quality environmental resources avoided or were the impacts minimized on this project? Visual Enhancement Availability of vision of (landscapes, landmarks) on the highway. Decorative bridge fencing (instead of standard fencing). Is the contractor required to establish, implement, and maintain a formal Noise Mitigation Plan during roadway construction? Safety Installation of preemptive signals. Does the authority conduct explicit consideration of safety using quantitative, scientifically proven methods? Public Partnership and Historical Preservation Were freight facilities installed on this project consistent with the need, purpose, and appropriateness for freight mobility within the project footprint within enhancing mobility of freight movements, decrease fuel consumption and emissions impacts, and reduce freight related noise? Corporation with public educational outreach to promote and educate the public about sustainability. Has an effort been made to minimize impacts, avoid impacts, or enhance features to preserve, protect, or enhance cultural and historic assets, and historic, archaeological, or cultural intrinsic qualities in a roadway? Effort been made to minimize impacts, avoid impacts, or enhance features on a portion of the project along one of any route designated or officially recognized as significantly historical, cultural, or archaeological.
Total Points
3. Model development by refinement of the parameters obtained in the data collection. This objective achieved in the model development stage by extracting the most effective parameters according to Pareto concept then making pairwise comparison questionnaire -serving AHP (Analytical Hierarchy Process) requirements- to obtain the weights of each parameter in the model and provide of a scorecard for the indexing model developed to get a rating system; 4. Evaluate the indexing model on existing highways construction projects. This objective achieved by presenting case studies to demonstrate the use of the sustainability index for highways construction projects in order to find the position of the highways construction industry from sustainability.
0
3. Methodology Methodology consists of performing data collection and performing reliability and correlation analysis on the collected data, then develop the model by applying Pareto concept and Analytical Hierarchy Process AHP. Finally develop a scoring system to use the model as a rating system as shown in Fig. 1. 3.1. Data collection In this section, a model was developed to address the major factors that influence highways construction sustainability that had been adopted by existing systems to assess the sustainability
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A.H. Ibrahim, M.A. Shaker Table 3
Sustainability Index for Highway Construction Projects for operation, maintains and planning (Score Sheet) [10–16].
Sustainability Index for Highway Construction Projects (Score Sheet) Category
ID
Description
1. Management and Leadership
1.1 1_1.1_1 1_1.1_2
Management Standards Are Financial Management Systems integrated within the Maintenance Management System? Are Construction/Project Management Systems integrated within the Maintenance Management System? Has the authority implemented an road maintenance plan? Does the plan include performance measures that can be used to monitor the effects of plan implementation? Partnership Does the authority use best practice quantitative methods to analyze and evaluate the performance of alternative land use/ transportation scenarios? Provide institutional leadership in encouraging transportation designing that’s in step with land use and economic development plans which supports property principles. Leadership Has the authority developed a comprehensive internal sustainability plan that includes goals, performance metrics, quantifiable targets, strategies, and actions? Is sustainability training provided for staff, including an introduction to the Comprehensive Internal Sustainability Plan?
1_1.1_3 1_1.1_4 1.2 1_1.2_1 1_1.2_2 1.3 1_1.3_1 1_1.3_2 2. Energy Efficiency
2.1 2_2.1_1 2_2.1_2
2_2.1_3 2.2 2_2.2_1
2_2.2_2 2_2.2_3 2_2.2_4 3. Materials and Financials
3.1 3_3.1_1
3_3.1_2
3.2 3_3.2_1 3_3.2_2 3.3 3_3.3_1
3_3.3_2 3_3.3_3 4. Environment and Emissions
4.1 4_4.1_1 4_4.1_2
Points (0) or(1)
Energy Reduction Strategies Does the authority employ a representative or maintain an employee committee focused on the reduction of energy consumption and sustainability? Does the authority coordinate with partner agencies and integrate energy and fossil fuel reduction strategies in the Long Range Transportation Plan, and does the Long Range Transportation Plan includes a discussion of the impacts of including these strategies? Had the authority incorporated energy and fossil fuel reduction performance measures into the transportation planning process? Energy efficiency Leadership Does the authority include in the Long Range Transportation Plan or other appropriate plan specific goals for maintaining and improving freight connectivity between modes and to freight generators for bothinter and intra town freight, in ways in which enhance sustainability? Does the authority utilize institutional mechanisms to facilitate the engagement of freight stakeholders? Does the authority include and monitor freight access performance measures in planning documents? Does the authority include and monitor freight mobility performance measures in planning documents? Reusing Has the authority set goals for operation and maintenance material reduction, reuse, and recycling? Goals are set for both administrative waste and operations and maintenance waste. Does the authority have a documented plan that outlines how the reduce, reuse, and recycle goals will be accomplished? A plan is developed for both administrative waste and operations and maintenance waste. Revenue and cost Does the authority undertake systematic forecast updates? Does the authority have established processes for engaging stakeholders in a dialogue about the implications of any changes in revenue forecasts? Data evaluation Does the authority demonstrate that the analysis has a strong foundation in observed data suitable for developing tools which model the land use, socioeconomic, transport, and environmental systems? Does the authority’s organizational structure include a technical committee to ensure the technical review of data collection/ quality, planning assumptions, and forecasting methods? Has the authority developed clearly defined goals and objectives for linking planning in their planning documents? Environmental precautions Does the authority utilize institutional mechanisms to facilitate the engagement? Does the authority apply system or landscape scale evaluation techniques using natural resource data?
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Sustainability index for highway construction
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Table 3 (continued) Sustainability Index for Highway Construction Projects (Score Sheet) Category
ID
Description
4_4.1_3
The authority monitors progress toward goals for at least one year and the authority can show measurable advancement towards goals. Emission reduction Does the authority partner with the governmental environmental authority, to coordinate and implement vehicle technologies including diesel emissions reduction strategies and clean vehicle strategies? Does the authority have quantifiable air emissions performance measures incorporated into its transportation planning documents?
4.2 4_4.2_1
4_4.2_2 5. Life Standard
5.1 5_5.1_1 5_5.1_2 5_5.1_3 5_5.1_4
5.2 5_5.2_1 5_5.2_2 5.3 5_5.3_1 5_5.3_2 5_5.3_3
Points (0) or(1)
Integrated Planning Does the authority demonstrate to stakeholders how their input was used to inform and affect transportation planning decisions? Does the authority implement transportation investments that support the community’s vision and goals and help achieve sustainability outcomes? Does the authority analyze how its transportation planning documents address or improves concerns/issues into the development of plans and policies? Does the authority’s Long Range Transportation Plan include performance measures that can be used to monitor the effects of plan implementation on transportation accessibility and affordability? Safety Does the authority integrate quantitative safety considerations in the selection and evaluation of strategies during the transportation planning process? Does the authority routinely join roadway, operation, asset management, medical, and other datasets spatially with crash data in the analysis? Multimodal transportation and public health Has the authority developed goals and objectives for enhancing the extent and connectivity of multimodal infrastructure within its jurisdiction? Has the authority developed clearly defined goals and objectives for improving the efficiency of the transportation system within its jurisdiction? Are the goals and objectives also consistent or surpass with relevant local, and metropolitan goals and objectives for improving transportation system efficiency?
Total Points
Table 4
Pearson correlation Output.
Phase 1: Correlations
Phase 2: Correlations
Axis
Subcategory
Significance
Axis
Subcategory
Significance
1
1_1 1_2 1_3 2_1 2_2 2_3 2_4 3_1 3_2 3_3 3_4 4_1 4_2 5_1 5_2 5_3
0.73 0.79 0.77 0.89 0.93 0.91 0.79 0.94 0.91 0.75 0.85 0.96 0.97 0.91 0.77 0.89
1
1_1 1_2 1_3 2_1 2_2 3_1 3_2 3_3 4_1 4_2 5_1 5_2 5_3
0.89 0.84 0.7 0.9 0.9 0.7 0.95 0.96 0.97 0.95 0.97 0.7 0.92
2
3
4 5
2 3
4 5
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A.H. Ibrahim, M.A. Shaker Table 5
Cronbach’s Alpha Output.
Axis Phase: 1
Reliability Statistics Cronbach’s Alpha
Axis Phase: 2
Reliability Statistics Cronbach’s Alpha
1 2 3 4 5
0.8 0.83 0.82 0.92 0.84
1 2 3 4 5
0.82 0.89 0.84 0.91 0.83
of the roads and also from previous studies that were exposed in the introduction. A first questionnaire survey was administered to address the major factors that influence highways construction sustainability from the point of view of the road industry sector in Egypt, and finally revise the results obtained and form the final model. Reliability analysis was carried out on the first questionnaire to determine the reliability of the results of the collected data. Correlation analysis was carried out on the first questionnaire to determine the correlation of the results of the collected data. In the first questionnaire design process, previous studies undertaken in the area of highways sustainability, green highways, and existing systems that rate highways sustainability have been taken into consideration. First questionnaire were sent out by electronic mail and were also hand-delivered to 100 experts in the highways sustainable construction field. A total of 70 questionnaires were duly completed and retrieved. The profile of participants illustrated in Fig. 2. 3.1.1. Correlation analysis Correlation is a statistical tool that helps to measure and analyze the degree of relationship between two or more variables [17]. Correlation analysis was carried out on the perceived task
Table 6
values and comprises five axis (each axis has its subcategory axes) in each phase – phase one represents (Design and Construction) and phase two represents (Operation, and Maintenance) – each phase content will be showed clearly in Tables 2 and 3. The labels of subcategory mentioned in Table 4 explained with details in Tables 2 and 3. Pearson’s coefficient showed that this questionnaire is an accepted correlation. Pearson’s coefficient = 0.7 as its lowest value and no items need to be removed as shown in Table 4. 3.1.2. Reliability analysis Reliability analysis make an allusion to the reality that a scale ought to reliably reflect the construct it is measuring [18]. To ascertain the confidence level of the collected data, reliability analysis was performed and the values of Cronbach’s Alpha shown in Table 5. Comprising five axes (each one has its subcategory axes). Cronbach’s alpha (a) showed that this questionnaire is an accepted reliability. a = 0.80 as its lowest value and no items need to be removed. 3.2. Model development The criteria used to develop the model is AHP (Analytical Hierarchy Process) as following: Input elements of AHP induced by extracting the most effective elements from the questionnaire after correlation and reliability analysis according to Pareto concept. Perform pairwise comparison questionnaire to serve AHP requirements in order to find relative weight of each element. Formation of the final model, which appears in the Tables 2 and 3.
Fundamental scale of absolute numbers [21].
Intensity of Importance
Definition
Explanation
1 2 3
Equal Importance Weak or slight Moderate importance Moderate plus Strong importance Strong plus Very strong Very, very strong Extreme importance
Two activities contribute equally to the objective
4 5 6 7 8 9
Experience and judgment slightly favor one activity over another
Experience and judgment strongly favor one activity over another An activity is favored very strongly over another The evidence favoring one activity over another is of the highest possible order of affirmation
Sustainability index for highway construction projects
Design and Construction
Fig. 3
Operation, Maintenance, and Planning
Hierarchy model of sustainability index for highway projects [10–16].
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Sustainability index for highway construction Input data of the model is one (applicable in project) or zero (non-applicable in project). Output of the model is an index. The final index produced by the model determines the achieved performance of sustainability in a highways construction project. This index reflexes the implementation amount of sustainable choices used throw the highways construction process and even more in the maintenance process. 3.2.1. Pareto analysis Pareto analysis is a statistical technique in decision making which used for selection of a most choices that produce significant overall effect. [19]. It uses the concept based on identifying the top 20% of causes that need to be addressed in order to resolve 80% of the problems. In this research, Pareto applied on the results of the first questionnaire in order to extract the most important factors affecting highways sustainability. Then AHP applied in order to find relative weight of each element in the model. 3.2.2. Analytical Hierarchy process The most effective element in making a decision is to choose the factors that are important for that decision. In the Analytic Hierarchy Process, we arrange these factors, once selected, in a
9 hierarchic structure descending from an overall goal to criteria, sub-criteria and alternatives in successive levels [20]. Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) which improved by T. Saaty, is one of the best known and most widely used multi-criteria analysis approaches. It allows users to determine the relative weight of multiple criteria or multiple choices against given criteria in an intuitive manner. In case quantitative ratings are not available, policy makers or assessors can still recognize whether one criterion is more important than another. Consistent way of converting pairwise comparisons into a set of numbers representing the relative priority of each element in the criteria. To make comparisons, a scale of numbers which represent how many times more important or dominant one factor is over another factor with respect to the criterion which they are compared [21]. Table 6 exhibits the scale of the method. 3.2.3. Applying of AHP The hierarchy models appears in Figs. 3–5. AHP used to derive weights for the most effective elements (the top quarter of each axis) according to Pareto’s distribution, indicating their perceived importance by making pairwise comparisons between two factors throw a second questionnaire that delivered to 48 experts in the highways industry.
1.1 Alignment precautions 1. Sustainable alignment
1.2 Management Precautions 1.3 Sensitive Solutions 2.1 Reduce Petroleum Consumption 2.2 Reduce Electrical Consumption
Design and Construction
2. Energy Efficiency and Emissions Reduction
2.3 Improve pedestrian and bicycling facilities 2.4 Noise Abatement 3.1 Reusing 3.2 Recycling
3. Materials and Resources 3.3 Environmental footprint 3.4 Sensitive precautions 4.1 Water precautions 4. Water and Environment 4.2 Wildlife and plant communities 5.1 Visual enhancement
5. Life Standard
5.2 Safety 5.3 Public Partnership and Historical Preservation
Fig. 4
Hierarchy model of design and construction phase [10–16].
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A.H. Ibrahim, M.A. Shaker
1.1 Management Standards 1. Management and Leadership
1.2 Partnership
Operation, and Maintenance phase
1.3 Leadership 2.1 Energy Reduction Strategies 2. Energy Efficiency 2.2 Energy efficiency Leadership
3.1 Reusing 3. Materials and Financials
3.2 Revenue and cost 3.3 Data evaluation 4.1 Environmental precautions
4. Environment and Emissions 4.2 Emission reduction 5.1 Integrated Planning 5. Life Standard
5.2 Safety 5.3 Multimodal transportation and public health
Fig. 5
Hierarchy model of operation, and Maintenance phase [10–16].
Sustainability Index for Highway Construction Projects (Score Sheet) Category
ID
Description
1.1
Alignment Precautions
Points (0)or(1)
1_1.1_1 Selecting alignment needs the minimum water structure facilities.
1. Sustainable Alignment
1_1.1_2 Selecting alignment to minimize over all earthworks. 1_1.1_3
1.2 1_1.2_1
1_1.2_2 1_1.2_3
1.3
1_1.3_1 1_1.3_2
Avoidance or the less impact to social resources (historic sites, commercial facilities, residential buildings). Management Precautions Was an Economic Impact Analysis completed? Is the Contractor required to plan and implement quality control measures throughout construction with care and for materials above and beyond what is typically required by specifications and regulations? Employ Stakeholder involvement techniques to achieve consensus for Preferred Project Alternative. Sensitive Solutions To safely illuminate roadways while minimizing unnecessary and potentially harmful illumination of the surrounding sky, communities, and habitat. Did the project integrate context sensitive aesthetic treatments? Fig. 6
Microsoft excel score sheet interface.
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Sustainability index for highway construction
11
Table 7
Model validation projects.
Project ID
Project name
Brief on the project
1
Shubra-Banha free road
2
Middle Ring Road
3
Axis of 30 June
4
The regional ring road
5
Development of Cairo Suez road
6
Katameya - Ain Sokhna
7 8
International coastal road Nakhl - Alttamadd
9
Al-Shat road
10
Zagazig - Belbeis
11
Mansoura-Sinblaoen
12
Abasah-Zagazig
The project involves the construction of a new freeway with five lanes in each direction with a total length of 42 km and a total width of 43.4 m, 3.65 m for each lane on the earthen embankment with an average height of 3 m. The owner of the project is the general authority for roads and bridges. Middle Ring Road East Cairo involves the construction of a new road with four lanes in each direction with a total length of 22 km and a total width of 35 m. The owner of the project is the general authority for roads and bridges. The project involves the construction of a new freeway axis with five lanes in each direction with a total length of 95 km and a total width of 80 m. The owner of the project is the ministry of housing, utilities and urban communities, central agency for reconstruction. Pedestrian lanes established on the road campus and other cars without intersections. The project starts from the intersection of Cairo Ismailia to Banha it involves the construction of a new road with four lanes in each direction with a total length of 61 km and a width of 3.6 m for each lane. The owner of the project is the general authority for roads and bridges. The project involves the expansion of the road by adding 3 lanes in each direction with a total length of 70 km and a total width of 7.5 m concrete pavement plus 10.95 m asphalt pavement for each direction. The owner of the project is the general authority for roads and bridges. The project is development and expansion of the road of Katameya - Ain Sokhna with a total length of 88 km and awidth of 6 lanes in each direction. The owner of the project is the ministry of defense. The project is maintenance and upgrading of the international coastal road (Sector 3B and Sector 6) with a total length of 70 km. The owner of the project is the general authority for roads and bridges. The project is strengthening and paving the path of Nakhl - Alttamadd with a total length of 50 km. The owner of the project is the general authority for roads and bridges. The project is strengthening and covering the road of Al-Shat - Abu Al-Karam - Qantara East (first stage) with a total length of 54 km. The owner of the project is the general authority for roads and bridges. The project is Maintenance and upgrading of the road of Zagazig – Belbeis with a total length of 28 km. The owner of the project is the general authority for roads and bridges. The project is Maintenance and re-paving of the road Mansoura - Sinblaoen with a total length of 21 km. The owner of the project is the general authority for roads and bridges. The project is maintenance and re-paving of the road Abasah-Abu-Akhdar-Zagazig with a total length of 19 km. The owner of the project is the general authority for roads and bridges.
100 90 80 70 60 50 40 30 20 10 0
Achieved certification level
Fig. 7
62
59
61
68
71
Case study 1
Case study 2
Case study 3
Case study 4
Case study 5
Case study 6
52
62
59
61
68
71
52
Implementation output of design and construction case studies.
Every element was compared to all other elements. Then weights were given to each element and full elements shown in Tables 2 and 3. Final weights inserted into excel model to be used in the producing of the final index of the model which will represent a certification level.
Non-certified, Certified, Silver, Gold and Green. The score range for these certification levels are 0–30, 31–50, 51–70, 71–90 and 91–100 respectively. Microsoft Excel used to facilitate the evaluation procedure as in Fig. 6. 4. Model application
3.3. Certification levels Certification levels developed to categorize sustainable highways as GreenLITES system. The certification levels are
In order to apply the developed Egyptian highways construction projects sustainability indexing model; we implemented it on some projects. In order to apply the model a project
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12
A.H. Ibrahim, M.A. Shaker 100 90 80 70 60 50 40 30 20 10 0
Achieved certification level
Fig. 8
77
77
77
77
Case study 9
Case study 10
Case study 11
Case study 12
68
77
77
77
68
68
Case study 7
Case study 8
77
68
Implementation output of operation and maintenance case studies.
has to be defined and establish the model elements. If any element of the model applicable in the project then a value equals 1 inserted in front of the item and a value equals 0 inserted in front of the item if not applicable in the project. The weight of the related element multiplied by the score of 1 or 0 then the summation of these scores gives the final total score of the project which represent a certification category. These case studies selected carefully from several existing projects to experience the indexing model. Summary of the projects will shows in Table 7. The output score of each case study shown in Figs. 7 and 8. 5. Research contribution This research aimed at establishing a comprehensive rating system, dedicated for sustainable highways in Egypt to help improving the efforts in the direction of applying sustainability and avoiding non-applicable elements in other existing systems, which involves non-existing conditions in the Egyptian highways construction projects nature. The contribution of this research can be summarized as follows: Developing a list of criteria to build up a sustainability rating system for Egyptian highways construction projects. AHP (Analytical Hierarchy Process) used to determine the weights of each criterion, proposing a conceptual module of highways sustainability index as basis of developing a highways construction projects sustainability rating system. Efforts done can be a first step to obtain a distinct Egyptian sustainable highways certification system. Guidelines developed to identify sustainability performance at different phases of the highways construction projects. Developing a sustainability index for Egyptian highways construction projects and can be used as a rating system. 6. Conclusion This study presents an organized methodology to assign sustainable practices in highways construction projects. Moreover, detailed steps of the developed model have been conducted to develop the proposed model. The focus of this research is to develop a sustainability index for highways construction projects, that assist highways
engineers, mangers and highways agencies to develop sustainable design, construction, operation and maintenance processes for highways. It acts as a sustainable measurement tool for the existing highways construction and maintenance practices. Not only to be confined just to the green building, but also to expand our green and sustainable knowledge to include highways sustainability and highways green practices. As a result of this study a certification levels developed to categorize sustainability in highways. However, the model can be used by other standards by modifying the weights or the requirements of the criteria to meet the required conditions and needs. For future studies, the paper’s approach can be generalized to be used as a guideline methodology for sustainable practices assignment in highways construction projects. This study presents a new studied case in highways construction projects sustainability assignment to sustainability assessment research knowledge where future sustainability studies can stand on to understand the process of producing a sustainability indexing model in construction projects. Therefore, the study methodology and steps can be generalized to be applied to similar sustainability assignment related to infrastructure projects. Declaration of Competing Interest The authors declare that there is no conflict of interest. References [1] S.I. Sarsam, Sustainable and green roadway rating system, Int. J. Sci. Res. Environ. Sci. 3 (3) (2015) 99–106, https://doi.org/ 10.12983/ijsres-2015-p0099-0106. [2] Adil Umer, Kasun Hewage, Husnain Haider, Rehan Sadiq, Sustainability assessment of roadway projects under uncertainty using Green Proforma: An index-based approach, Int. J. Sustain. Built Environ. 5 (2) (2016) 604–619, https://doi.org/ 10.1016/j.ijsbe.2016.06.002. [3] FHWA (2016), FHWA, federal highway administration, United States department of transportation. https:// www.sustainablehighways.org/203/what-is-a-sustainablehighway.html. [4] Gambaotese, J.A. (2005). ‘‘Sustainable roadway construction: Energy consumption and material waste generation of roadways” Proc., Construction Research Congress 183, ASCE, Reston, VA, 1–13. ; American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO), 2008.
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Sustainability index for highway construction [5] A. Horvath, C. Hendrickson, Comparison of Environmental Implication of Asphalt and Steel-Reinforced Concrete Pavements” Transportation Research Record 1626, Transportation Research Board, Washington, DC, 1998, pp. 105–113. [6] Abbasnejad, Behzad. Poor Quality Cost in Construction: Literature Review. 2013, 10.13140/RG.2.1.2232.1683. [7] F.S. Mendler, W. Odell, The HOK guidebook to sustainable design’, Wiley, New York, 2000. [8] FHWA (2016), FHWA, federal highway administration, United States department of transportation. https:// www.sustainablehighways.org/790/sustainability-and-highways. html. [9] Naganathan, H., Chong, W., and Schrock, S. ‘‘Sustainability Quantification System: A Quantitative Approach to Evaluate Transportation Sustainability in U.S’’, ICSI 2014: pp. 10971107, International Conference on Sustainable Infrastructure 2014, Long Beach, California, November 6-8, 2014, ISBN (PDF): 978-0-7844-7874-5, ASCE. [10] NYSDOT. New York State Department of Transportation. (2010).‘‘NYSDOTsustainability&GreenLITES.” (Nov. 19, 2010). https://www.dot.ny.gov/programs/greenlites. [11] S.T. Muench, J. Anderson, T. Bevan, Greenroads: A sustainability rating system for roadways, Int. J. Pavement Res. Technol. 3 (5) (2010) 270–279. [12] Shepherd, G. ‘‘FHWA’s sustainable highways self-evaluation tool.” 2010, (Nov. 19, 2010). http://www.transportation.org/ sites/aashto/docs/FHWA%20Sustainable%20Highways%20Tool %20%20AASHTO%20102910%20v2%20(2)final.pdf. [13] P. Bocchini, D.M. Frangopol, T. Ummenhofer, T. Zinke, Resilience and sustainability of civil infrastructure: toward a unified approach, J. Infrastruct. Syst. 20 (2014) 2.
13 [14] A.A. Eisenman, Sustainable streets and highways: an analysis of green roads rating systems, Doctoral dissertation, Georgia Institute of Technology, 2012. [15] Institute for Sustainable Infrastructure, (2012), ‘‘Envision checklist”, http://www.sustainableinfrastructure.org/portal/ envision2/checklist.cfm. [16] D. Knuth, J. Fortmann, The development of I-LAST Illinois— Livable and sustainable transportation, in: Green Streets and Highways 2010: An Interactive Conference on the State of the Art and How to Achieve Sustainable Outcomes, 2010, pp. 495– 503. [17] A.P. Hu¨sser, Correlation Analysis, in: J. Matthes, C.S. Davis, R.F. Potter (Eds.), The International Encyclopedia of Communication Research Methods, 2017, doi:10.1002/ 9781118901731.iecrm0048. [18] M. Reddy, Reliability Analysis and Validity, Analysis. (2019), https://doi.org/10.1201/9780429023309-13. [19] Russell (2012). Russell, J., Cohn, Pareto Analysis, 9785511162423, 2012. [20] Thomas L. Saaty , Joseph M. Katz,” How to make a decision: The Analytic Hierarchy Process”, European Journal of Operational Research 48, Elsevier Science Publishers B.V. (North-Holland), Graduate School of Business, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA 15260, USA, 1990. [21] Thomas L. Saaty, Decision making with the analytic hierarchy process, Int. J. Services Sci. 1 (1) (2008), 2008, Katz Graduate School of Business, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA 15260, USA. [22] Reid et al., Sustainable Highways: A Short Guide’, J.M. Reid, J.W.E. Chandler, I. Schiavi, and A.P. Hewitt, Department for Transport, June 2008, London.
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H O S T E D BY
Alexandria University
Alexandria Engineering Journal www.elsevier.com/locate/aej www.sciencedirect.com
ORIGINAL ARTICLE
Sustainability index for highway construction projects Ahmed H. Ibrahim, Mohamed A. Shaker * Construction Engineering and Utilities, Zagazig University, Zagazig, Egypt Received 28 October 2019; revised 8 November 2019; accepted 16 November 2019
KEYWORDS Sustainability; Highways; Index; Sustainability index; Evaluation model; Analytical hierarchy process; Rating system
Abstract The focus of this research is to develop a sustainability index for Egyptian highways construction projects that assist highways engineers, mangers and highways agencies to develop sustainable design, construction, operation and maintenance processes for highways. It acts as a sustainable measurement tool for highways construction and maintenance practices to determine the achieved performance of sustainability in the highways construction projects represented by an index. This index reflexes the implementation amount of sustainable choices used throw the highways construction process and even more in the maintenance process. A review on recent studies and available tools on highways sustainability covered to develop appropriate parameters for the indexing model and avoidance of non-compatible parameters with the Egyptian highways nature then performing questionnaire on these model parameters to obtain optimum sustainable choices. In order to get reliable results correlation and reliability analysis performed on the data then extracting the most effective parameters according to Pareto concept then making pairwise comparison questionnaire serving AHP (Analytical Hierarchy Process) requirements to obtain the weights of each parameter in the model. A scorecard for the indexing model developed to get rating system. Case studies presented to demonstrate the use of the sustainability index for Egyptian highways construction projects. Ó 2019 Faculty of Engineering, Alexandria University. Production and hosting by Elsevier B.V. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).
1. Introduction Sustainable highways takes into account development of community and economy within the improvement of the natural environment and minimization of natural resource usage [1].
* Corresponding author. E-mail addresses: [email protected] (A.H. Ibrahim), [email protected] (M.A. Shaker). Peer review under responsibility of Faculty of Engineering, Alexandria University.
The sustainability characteristics of a highways project should be defined and fulfilment during its different lifecycle stages [2]. Sustainability in highways has to be handled with the realization that highways are the pivotal part of transportation infrastructure, and transportation is unavoidable to face human needs. Besides environmental and natural resource requirements handling, the development of a sustainable highways should concentrate on attained access (not just mobility), transport people and goods (not just vehicles), and supplying human with transportation possibilities, such as safe and comfortable roads for walking, cycling, and transit [3].
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.aej.2019.11.011 1110-0168 Ó 2019 Faculty of Engineering, Alexandria University. Production and hosting by Elsevier B.V. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/). Please cite this article in press as: A.H. Ibrahim, M.A. Shaker, Sustainability index for highway construction projects, Alexandria Eng. J. (2019), https://doi.org/ 10.1016/j.aej.2019.11.011
2 Highways construction projects are voracious of energy and material which outcomes a large amount of losses [4]. For example, (7TJ) of energy consumed to construct a 1-km length of typical two-lane road with flexible pavement [5]. A sustainable way to highways construction starts with reusing plan and practical usage of the material already existing on the site. Lack of comparative and quantitative analysis methods prevent rating the economic and environmental advantages, which carried out by using recycled materials in construction. The highways construction industry emphasized three factors throw its history: cost, time, and quality. Those factors do not take into consideration human needs, environmental impacts, or social responsibility risks [6]. Sustainable choices become the base of the transportation section and adopted by many countries transportation authorities. Sustainable choices become the phraseology of transportation sectors, but the adoption of such choices, not fast enough to get over the increasing universal demand of resources [7]. 2. Literature survey Numerous professionals consider the term ‘‘Sustainable highways” an ironic expression as there are huge material consumption and have significant impacts to the natural resources due to highways construction and vehicles use of the highways [8]. When think carefully about the triple bottom line principles, the social and economic benefits that our highways provide must also considered, such as access, mobility, and the economic benefits of transport people and goods. In that situation, highways are a very vital part of our infrastructure and certainly a necessary infrastructure of our society [9]. 2.1. Existing highways sustainability rating systems 2.1.1. GreenLITES (Green Leadership in transportation and environmental Sustainability) GreenLITES developed by New York State department of transportation (DOT) to recognize best practices and to measure their performance by evaluating projects incorporating sustainable choices. Highways construction projects evaluated for sustainable choices on the basis of two certification programs; i.e., a rating program for project designs and a rating program for operations then a certification level (i.e., certified, silver, gold, and evergreen) is assigned according to the total credits received [10]. 2.1.2. Greenroads (University of Washington) Greenroads is a collection of sustainability best choices that can be applied to highways construction. Greenroads consists of required best choices and voluntary best practices. Required best choices should be satisfied as a minimum requirement, while voluntary best practices on the other hand to enhance sustainability [11]. 2.1.3. IN-VEST (Infrastructure voluntary evaluation sustainability Tool) IN-VEST is a web-based self-evaluation tool developed by the Federal Highways Administration to measure the sustainability
A.H. Ibrahim, M.A. Shaker of highways construction. IN-VEST consists of 68 practice based on sustainability best choices. IN-VEST uses other tools (e.g., GreenLITES and Greenroads) as references [12]. 2.1.4. CEEQUAL (Civil engineering environmental quality assessment and award Scheme) CEEQUAL considered as a sustainability evaluation to rate civil engineering, infrastructure and, landscaping. CEEQUAL gives support and raise the achievement of high economic, environmental and social development in all forms of civil engineering through determining and applying best choices. It looking forward to assist clients, designers and contractors to get improved sustainability performance in a project or contract, during specification, design and construction. In addition to its use as a rating system to assess performance, the rigor and flexibility of the scheme can significantly influence project or contract team decisions as they develop, design and construct their work. It stimulate them to consider the sustainability choices they face at the most appropriate time and enables them to achieve the CEEQUAL score their work deserves. CEEQUAL helpful in projects and contracts [13]. 2.1.5. STEED (Sustainable transportation environmental engineering and Design) STEED is a 35-page document organized by categories and checklists. In order to use STEED practices on a project there are four-stage process in which each stage of design, construction, etc. is evaluated. By evaluating a project in each stage of project completion, the overall project intentions can be tracked to determine if the objectives were met, ‘‘and, if not, during which stage things either improved or deteriorated.” While one project may not up hold all of the intentions from the planning to environmental stages, or environmental to design and then construction, the goal of measuring the project at each of the four stages is ultimately to learn where and how sustainable practices can be effectively integrated so that future project sustainability can be maximized. Use of materials is one emphasis of the STEED program [14]. 2.1.6. Envision The Envision is a rating system consists of five sections: Quality of Life, Leadership, Resource Allocation, Natural World, and Climate and Risk. Totally, 60 credits make up this rating system. A 2-page write-up describing each credit includes the intent, levels of achievement, a description of how to achieve a higher level, documentation, and related credits [15]. 2.1.7. I-LAST (Illinois livable and sustainable transportation rating system and Guide) I-LAST consists of two main parts, the first part is the rating system and the second part is a guide developed by Illinois department of transportation to evaluate the sustainability of highways projects. I-LAST consists of over 150 sustainable items. The scoring process of I-LAST consists of three steps: (1) determining the items applicable to a project; (2) evaluating the total points for the achieved items; and (3) scoring by calculating the percentage of achieved points to the total available points [16]. Summary of all previous systems appears in Table 1.
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Sustainability index for highway construction Table 1
3
Summary of literature review.
System
Brief
Reference
GreenLITES Greenroads IN-VEST CEEQUAL STEED Envision
Evaluating projects incorporating sustainable choices. Consists of required best choices and voluntary best practices Web-based self-evaluation tool. Sustainability evaluation to rate civil engineering, infrastructure and, landscaping. A 35-page document organized by categories and checklists. A rating system consists of five sections: Quality of Life, Leadership, Resource Allocation, Natural World, and Climate and Risk. Consists of two main parts, the first part is the rating system and the second part is a guide to evaluate the sustainability of highways projects.
NYSDOT [10] Muench et al. [11] Shepherd, G. [12] Bocchini et al. [13] Ana Athalia [14] Institute for Sustainable Infrastructure [15] Knuth, D., and Fortmann, J. [16]
I-LAST
2.2. Problem statement It is important that highways departments set their targets and key performance indicators at the right level, to realize continuous improvement in sustainability performance [22]. The objective of this paper is to get over this problem by developing extensive sustainability index for Egyptian highways construction projects with certification levels. As the existing systems mentioned in the literature review have
non-applicable elements in the Egyptian highways construction projects nature such as GreenLITES, which is an internal management program for NYSDOT to measure their performance internally and based on their local parameters. 2.3. Aim of the research The overall aim of this research is to develop a practical and easy to use indexing model to aid the implementation, integration and management of sustainability issues in the highways construction wider uptake of the concept in the highways construction industry in Egypt. This could be achieved by developing a model that helps construction companies identify gaps in their corporate sustainability implementation efforts, focus attention on areas for improvement, benchmark their performance with peers and the highways construction industry as a whole. In this context, four key objectives were identified as following. 1. Investigate the concept of sustainability, sustainable development, sustainability indexing, highways sustainability and existing strategic approaches and systems. This objective achieved in the literature review by reviewing recent studies and available tools on highways sustainability to develop appropriate parameters for the indexing model; 2. Identify model parameters and performing questionnaire on these parameters to obtain optimum sustainable choices. In order to get reliable results correlation and reliability analysis performed on the questionnaire data. This objective achieved in the data collection stage by obtaining parameters of the model then performing questionnaire to obtain optimum sustainable parameters then processing of questionnaire data using correlation and reliability analysis to get the most reliable and correlated data;
10% 7%
Academics Industry Organizations
83%
Fig. 1
Research methodology.
Fig. 2
Research centres
Profile of participants.
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A.H. Ibrahim, M.A. Shaker Table 2
Sustainability Index for Highway Construction Projects for design and construction (Score Sheet) [10–16].
Sustainability Index for Highway Construction Projects (Score Sheet) Category
ID
Description
1. Sustainable Alignment
1.1 1_1.1_1 1_1.1_2 1_1.1_3
Alignment Precautions Selecting alignment needs the minimum water structure facilities. Selecting alignment to minimize over all earthworks. Avoidance or the less impact to social resources (historic sites, commercial facilities, residential buildings). Management Precautions Was an Economic Impact Analysis completed? Contractor required to plan and implement quality control measures through construction and for materials required by specifications. Employ Stakeholder involvement techniques to achieve consensus for Preferred Project Alternative. Sensitive Solutions Safe illumination of roadways while minimizing unnecessary and harmful illumination of the surrounding communities. Did the project integrate context sensitive aesthetic treatments?
1.2 1_1.2_1 1_1.2_2 1_1.2_3 1.3 1_1.3_1 1_1.3_2 2. Energy Efficiency and Emissions Reduction
2.1 2_2.1_1 2_2.1_2 2_2.1_3 2_2.1_4 2_2.1_5 2_2.1_6
2.2 2_2.2_1 2_2.2_2 2_2.2_3 2.3 2_2.3_1 2_2.3_2 2_2.3_3 2_2.3_4
2.4 2_2.4_1 2_2.4_2 3. Materials and Resources
3.1 3_3.1_1 3_3.1_2 3_3.1_3 3_3.1_4 3.2 3_3.2_1 3_3.2_2 3_3.2_3 3.3 3_3.3_1
3_3.3_2 3.4
Points (0)or(1)
Reduce Petroleum Consumption Projects better enabling use of public transit through increasing transportation efficiencies for moving freely and conserve fuel. Use of warm mix asphalt. Using LED sign traffic signals and usage of all stop phase. Diamond grinding of existing Portland Cement Concrete pavement. Was at least 50 percent of the total project pavement material (by weight) a low energy material from asphalt production (warm mix asphalt)? Was the warm mix asphalt mixing temperature reduced by a minimum of 50 degrees from that recommended by the binder supplier. Or, it was asphalt from a plant utilizing the energy and fuel savings according to energy star certified . Reduce Electrical Consumption Installation of preemptive signals. Use of LED street lighting. Retrofit existing street sign lighting with LED. Improve Pedestrian and Bicycling Facilities Create new or extend existing sidewalks. Work with local communities to create parallel bike routes where city roads are not suitable for less experienced cyclists. Upgrading pedestrian signals, inclusion of pedestrian buttons and countdown timers. New curbing (where none previously existed), to better define the edge of a roadway and to provide vertical separation of pedestrian facilities; does not include flush, mountable or bridge curbing. Noise Abatement Applying traffic system management techniques to reduce noise levels (e.g. use of truck routes, progressive traffic signals, lowering speeds). Provide planting to improve perceived noise impacts. Reusing 50% or more of topsoil removed for grading reused on site. Major structural elements such as piers reusing if the life cycle feature guaranteed. Reuse of industrial products in pavement materials, ancillary structures, and other roadway elements. Has topsoil been preserved or reused on this project? Recycling Specify rubble or crack and seating of Portland Cement Concrete pavement. Contract provides scrap metals for reuse or recycling. Recycled Asphalt Pavement mixes usage. Environmental Footprint Project design substantially minimizes the need to use hazardous materials (e.g. steel or concrete railroad ties instead of treated wood), or increases the interval before reconstruction must be performed using hazardous or toxic materials, or improves durability of components that contain hazardous substances. Specify locally available natural light weight fill. Sensitive Precautions
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Sustainability index for highway construction
5
Table 2 (continued) Sustainability Index for Highway Construction Projects (Score Sheet) Category
ID
Description
3_3.4_1 3_3.4_2 3_3.4_3
Increase remaining service life through retrofitting existing bridge structures. Designing of long lasting pavement structures to minimize lifecycle costs. Project designs that utilize soil-bioengineering solutions to reliance on plant material for slope protection, rebuilding, stabilization, and erosion control along waterways. Reduction of new pavement materials amount needed.
3_3.4_4 4. Water and Environment
4.1 4_4.1_1 4_4.1_2 4_4.1_3 4_4.1_4 4.2 4_4.2_1 4_4.2_2 4_4.2_3
5. Life Standard
5.1 5_5.1_1 5_5.1_2 5_5.1_3 5.2 5_5.2_1 5_5.2_2 5.3 5_5.3_1
5_5.3_2 5_5.3_3
5_5.3_4
Points (0)or(1)
Water Precautions The project treatment of 80% of the total runoff volume at least. Manage and control the flow based on controlling peak flows or durations from the project site. Were high quality aquatic resources avoided or were the impacts minimized on this project? Shoulders constructed of permeable pavement. Wildlife and Plant Communities Re-establishment and expansion of native vegetation into reclaimed work areas. Environmental third party to monitor and provide quality assurance services and report directly and make recommendations to the regulatory and lead agencies. Were high quality environmental resources avoided or were the impacts minimized on this project? Visual Enhancement Availability of vision of (landscapes, landmarks) on the highway. Decorative bridge fencing (instead of standard fencing). Is the contractor required to establish, implement, and maintain a formal Noise Mitigation Plan during roadway construction? Safety Installation of preemptive signals. Does the authority conduct explicit consideration of safety using quantitative, scientifically proven methods? Public Partnership and Historical Preservation Were freight facilities installed on this project consistent with the need, purpose, and appropriateness for freight mobility within the project footprint within enhancing mobility of freight movements, decrease fuel consumption and emissions impacts, and reduce freight related noise? Corporation with public educational outreach to promote and educate the public about sustainability. Has an effort been made to minimize impacts, avoid impacts, or enhance features to preserve, protect, or enhance cultural and historic assets, and historic, archaeological, or cultural intrinsic qualities in a roadway? Effort been made to minimize impacts, avoid impacts, or enhance features on a portion of the project along one of any route designated or officially recognized as significantly historical, cultural, or archaeological.
Total Points
3. Model development by refinement of the parameters obtained in the data collection. This objective achieved in the model development stage by extracting the most effective parameters according to Pareto concept then making pairwise comparison questionnaire -serving AHP (Analytical Hierarchy Process) requirements- to obtain the weights of each parameter in the model and provide of a scorecard for the indexing model developed to get a rating system; 4. Evaluate the indexing model on existing highways construction projects. This objective achieved by presenting case studies to demonstrate the use of the sustainability index for highways construction projects in order to find the position of the highways construction industry from sustainability.
0
3. Methodology Methodology consists of performing data collection and performing reliability and correlation analysis on the collected data, then develop the model by applying Pareto concept and Analytical Hierarchy Process AHP. Finally develop a scoring system to use the model as a rating system as shown in Fig. 1. 3.1. Data collection In this section, a model was developed to address the major factors that influence highways construction sustainability that had been adopted by existing systems to assess the sustainability
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6
A.H. Ibrahim, M.A. Shaker Table 3
Sustainability Index for Highway Construction Projects for operation, maintains and planning (Score Sheet) [10–16].
Sustainability Index for Highway Construction Projects (Score Sheet) Category
ID
Description
1. Management and Leadership
1.1 1_1.1_1 1_1.1_2
Management Standards Are Financial Management Systems integrated within the Maintenance Management System? Are Construction/Project Management Systems integrated within the Maintenance Management System? Has the authority implemented an road maintenance plan? Does the plan include performance measures that can be used to monitor the effects of plan implementation? Partnership Does the authority use best practice quantitative methods to analyze and evaluate the performance of alternative land use/ transportation scenarios? Provide institutional leadership in encouraging transportation designing that’s in step with land use and economic development plans which supports property principles. Leadership Has the authority developed a comprehensive internal sustainability plan that includes goals, performance metrics, quantifiable targets, strategies, and actions? Is sustainability training provided for staff, including an introduction to the Comprehensive Internal Sustainability Plan?
1_1.1_3 1_1.1_4 1.2 1_1.2_1 1_1.2_2 1.3 1_1.3_1 1_1.3_2 2. Energy Efficiency
2.1 2_2.1_1 2_2.1_2
2_2.1_3 2.2 2_2.2_1
2_2.2_2 2_2.2_3 2_2.2_4 3. Materials and Financials
3.1 3_3.1_1
3_3.1_2
3.2 3_3.2_1 3_3.2_2 3.3 3_3.3_1
3_3.3_2 3_3.3_3 4. Environment and Emissions
4.1 4_4.1_1 4_4.1_2
Points (0) or(1)
Energy Reduction Strategies Does the authority employ a representative or maintain an employee committee focused on the reduction of energy consumption and sustainability? Does the authority coordinate with partner agencies and integrate energy and fossil fuel reduction strategies in the Long Range Transportation Plan, and does the Long Range Transportation Plan includes a discussion of the impacts of including these strategies? Had the authority incorporated energy and fossil fuel reduction performance measures into the transportation planning process? Energy efficiency Leadership Does the authority include in the Long Range Transportation Plan or other appropriate plan specific goals for maintaining and improving freight connectivity between modes and to freight generators for bothinter and intra town freight, in ways in which enhance sustainability? Does the authority utilize institutional mechanisms to facilitate the engagement of freight stakeholders? Does the authority include and monitor freight access performance measures in planning documents? Does the authority include and monitor freight mobility performance measures in planning documents? Reusing Has the authority set goals for operation and maintenance material reduction, reuse, and recycling? Goals are set for both administrative waste and operations and maintenance waste. Does the authority have a documented plan that outlines how the reduce, reuse, and recycle goals will be accomplished? A plan is developed for both administrative waste and operations and maintenance waste. Revenue and cost Does the authority undertake systematic forecast updates? Does the authority have established processes for engaging stakeholders in a dialogue about the implications of any changes in revenue forecasts? Data evaluation Does the authority demonstrate that the analysis has a strong foundation in observed data suitable for developing tools which model the land use, socioeconomic, transport, and environmental systems? Does the authority’s organizational structure include a technical committee to ensure the technical review of data collection/ quality, planning assumptions, and forecasting methods? Has the authority developed clearly defined goals and objectives for linking planning in their planning documents? Environmental precautions Does the authority utilize institutional mechanisms to facilitate the engagement? Does the authority apply system or landscape scale evaluation techniques using natural resource data?
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Sustainability index for highway construction
7
Table 3 (continued) Sustainability Index for Highway Construction Projects (Score Sheet) Category
ID
Description
4_4.1_3
The authority monitors progress toward goals for at least one year and the authority can show measurable advancement towards goals. Emission reduction Does the authority partner with the governmental environmental authority, to coordinate and implement vehicle technologies including diesel emissions reduction strategies and clean vehicle strategies? Does the authority have quantifiable air emissions performance measures incorporated into its transportation planning documents?
4.2 4_4.2_1
4_4.2_2 5. Life Standard
5.1 5_5.1_1 5_5.1_2 5_5.1_3 5_5.1_4
5.2 5_5.2_1 5_5.2_2 5.3 5_5.3_1 5_5.3_2 5_5.3_3
Points (0) or(1)
Integrated Planning Does the authority demonstrate to stakeholders how their input was used to inform and affect transportation planning decisions? Does the authority implement transportation investments that support the community’s vision and goals and help achieve sustainability outcomes? Does the authority analyze how its transportation planning documents address or improves concerns/issues into the development of plans and policies? Does the authority’s Long Range Transportation Plan include performance measures that can be used to monitor the effects of plan implementation on transportation accessibility and affordability? Safety Does the authority integrate quantitative safety considerations in the selection and evaluation of strategies during the transportation planning process? Does the authority routinely join roadway, operation, asset management, medical, and other datasets spatially with crash data in the analysis? Multimodal transportation and public health Has the authority developed goals and objectives for enhancing the extent and connectivity of multimodal infrastructure within its jurisdiction? Has the authority developed clearly defined goals and objectives for improving the efficiency of the transportation system within its jurisdiction? Are the goals and objectives also consistent or surpass with relevant local, and metropolitan goals and objectives for improving transportation system efficiency?
Total Points
Table 4
Pearson correlation Output.
Phase 1: Correlations
Phase 2: Correlations
Axis
Subcategory
Significance
Axis
Subcategory
Significance
1
1_1 1_2 1_3 2_1 2_2 2_3 2_4 3_1 3_2 3_3 3_4 4_1 4_2 5_1 5_2 5_3
0.73 0.79 0.77 0.89 0.93 0.91 0.79 0.94 0.91 0.75 0.85 0.96 0.97 0.91 0.77 0.89
1
1_1 1_2 1_3 2_1 2_2 3_1 3_2 3_3 4_1 4_2 5_1 5_2 5_3
0.89 0.84 0.7 0.9 0.9 0.7 0.95 0.96 0.97 0.95 0.97 0.7 0.92
2
3
4 5
2 3
4 5
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A.H. Ibrahim, M.A. Shaker Table 5
Cronbach’s Alpha Output.
Axis Phase: 1
Reliability Statistics Cronbach’s Alpha
Axis Phase: 2
Reliability Statistics Cronbach’s Alpha
1 2 3 4 5
0.8 0.83 0.82 0.92 0.84
1 2 3 4 5
0.82 0.89 0.84 0.91 0.83
of the roads and also from previous studies that were exposed in the introduction. A first questionnaire survey was administered to address the major factors that influence highways construction sustainability from the point of view of the road industry sector in Egypt, and finally revise the results obtained and form the final model. Reliability analysis was carried out on the first questionnaire to determine the reliability of the results of the collected data. Correlation analysis was carried out on the first questionnaire to determine the correlation of the results of the collected data. In the first questionnaire design process, previous studies undertaken in the area of highways sustainability, green highways, and existing systems that rate highways sustainability have been taken into consideration. First questionnaire were sent out by electronic mail and were also hand-delivered to 100 experts in the highways sustainable construction field. A total of 70 questionnaires were duly completed and retrieved. The profile of participants illustrated in Fig. 2. 3.1.1. Correlation analysis Correlation is a statistical tool that helps to measure and analyze the degree of relationship between two or more variables [17]. Correlation analysis was carried out on the perceived task
Table 6
values and comprises five axis (each axis has its subcategory axes) in each phase – phase one represents (Design and Construction) and phase two represents (Operation, and Maintenance) – each phase content will be showed clearly in Tables 2 and 3. The labels of subcategory mentioned in Table 4 explained with details in Tables 2 and 3. Pearson’s coefficient showed that this questionnaire is an accepted correlation. Pearson’s coefficient = 0.7 as its lowest value and no items need to be removed as shown in Table 4. 3.1.2. Reliability analysis Reliability analysis make an allusion to the reality that a scale ought to reliably reflect the construct it is measuring [18]. To ascertain the confidence level of the collected data, reliability analysis was performed and the values of Cronbach’s Alpha shown in Table 5. Comprising five axes (each one has its subcategory axes). Cronbach’s alpha (a) showed that this questionnaire is an accepted reliability. a = 0.80 as its lowest value and no items need to be removed. 3.2. Model development The criteria used to develop the model is AHP (Analytical Hierarchy Process) as following: Input elements of AHP induced by extracting the most effective elements from the questionnaire after correlation and reliability analysis according to Pareto concept. Perform pairwise comparison questionnaire to serve AHP requirements in order to find relative weight of each element. Formation of the final model, which appears in the Tables 2 and 3.
Fundamental scale of absolute numbers [21].
Intensity of Importance
Definition
Explanation
1 2 3
Equal Importance Weak or slight Moderate importance Moderate plus Strong importance Strong plus Very strong Very, very strong Extreme importance
Two activities contribute equally to the objective
4 5 6 7 8 9
Experience and judgment slightly favor one activity over another
Experience and judgment strongly favor one activity over another An activity is favored very strongly over another The evidence favoring one activity over another is of the highest possible order of affirmation
Sustainability index for highway construction projects
Design and Construction
Fig. 3
Operation, Maintenance, and Planning
Hierarchy model of sustainability index for highway projects [10–16].
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Sustainability index for highway construction Input data of the model is one (applicable in project) or zero (non-applicable in project). Output of the model is an index. The final index produced by the model determines the achieved performance of sustainability in a highways construction project. This index reflexes the implementation amount of sustainable choices used throw the highways construction process and even more in the maintenance process. 3.2.1. Pareto analysis Pareto analysis is a statistical technique in decision making which used for selection of a most choices that produce significant overall effect. [19]. It uses the concept based on identifying the top 20% of causes that need to be addressed in order to resolve 80% of the problems. In this research, Pareto applied on the results of the first questionnaire in order to extract the most important factors affecting highways sustainability. Then AHP applied in order to find relative weight of each element in the model. 3.2.2. Analytical Hierarchy process The most effective element in making a decision is to choose the factors that are important for that decision. In the Analytic Hierarchy Process, we arrange these factors, once selected, in a
9 hierarchic structure descending from an overall goal to criteria, sub-criteria and alternatives in successive levels [20]. Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) which improved by T. Saaty, is one of the best known and most widely used multi-criteria analysis approaches. It allows users to determine the relative weight of multiple criteria or multiple choices against given criteria in an intuitive manner. In case quantitative ratings are not available, policy makers or assessors can still recognize whether one criterion is more important than another. Consistent way of converting pairwise comparisons into a set of numbers representing the relative priority of each element in the criteria. To make comparisons, a scale of numbers which represent how many times more important or dominant one factor is over another factor with respect to the criterion which they are compared [21]. Table 6 exhibits the scale of the method. 3.2.3. Applying of AHP The hierarchy models appears in Figs. 3–5. AHP used to derive weights for the most effective elements (the top quarter of each axis) according to Pareto’s distribution, indicating their perceived importance by making pairwise comparisons between two factors throw a second questionnaire that delivered to 48 experts in the highways industry.
1.1 Alignment precautions 1. Sustainable alignment
1.2 Management Precautions 1.3 Sensitive Solutions 2.1 Reduce Petroleum Consumption 2.2 Reduce Electrical Consumption
Design and Construction
2. Energy Efficiency and Emissions Reduction
2.3 Improve pedestrian and bicycling facilities 2.4 Noise Abatement 3.1 Reusing 3.2 Recycling
3. Materials and Resources 3.3 Environmental footprint 3.4 Sensitive precautions 4.1 Water precautions 4. Water and Environment 4.2 Wildlife and plant communities 5.1 Visual enhancement
5. Life Standard
5.2 Safety 5.3 Public Partnership and Historical Preservation
Fig. 4
Hierarchy model of design and construction phase [10–16].
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A.H. Ibrahim, M.A. Shaker
1.1 Management Standards 1. Management and Leadership
1.2 Partnership
Operation, and Maintenance phase
1.3 Leadership 2.1 Energy Reduction Strategies 2. Energy Efficiency 2.2 Energy efficiency Leadership
3.1 Reusing 3. Materials and Financials
3.2 Revenue and cost 3.3 Data evaluation 4.1 Environmental precautions
4. Environment and Emissions 4.2 Emission reduction 5.1 Integrated Planning 5. Life Standard
5.2 Safety 5.3 Multimodal transportation and public health
Fig. 5
Hierarchy model of operation, and Maintenance phase [10–16].
Sustainability Index for Highway Construction Projects (Score Sheet) Category
ID
Description
1.1
Alignment Precautions
Points (0)or(1)
1_1.1_1 Selecting alignment needs the minimum water structure facilities.
1. Sustainable Alignment
1_1.1_2 Selecting alignment to minimize over all earthworks. 1_1.1_3
1.2 1_1.2_1
1_1.2_2 1_1.2_3
1.3
1_1.3_1 1_1.3_2
Avoidance or the less impact to social resources (historic sites, commercial facilities, residential buildings). Management Precautions Was an Economic Impact Analysis completed? Is the Contractor required to plan and implement quality control measures throughout construction with care and for materials above and beyond what is typically required by specifications and regulations? Employ Stakeholder involvement techniques to achieve consensus for Preferred Project Alternative. Sensitive Solutions To safely illuminate roadways while minimizing unnecessary and potentially harmful illumination of the surrounding sky, communities, and habitat. Did the project integrate context sensitive aesthetic treatments? Fig. 6
Microsoft excel score sheet interface.
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Sustainability index for highway construction
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Table 7
Model validation projects.
Project ID
Project name
Brief on the project
1
Shubra-Banha free road
2
Middle Ring Road
3
Axis of 30 June
4
The regional ring road
5
Development of Cairo Suez road
6
Katameya - Ain Sokhna
7 8
International coastal road Nakhl - Alttamadd
9
Al-Shat road
10
Zagazig - Belbeis
11
Mansoura-Sinblaoen
12
Abasah-Zagazig
The project involves the construction of a new freeway with five lanes in each direction with a total length of 42 km and a total width of 43.4 m, 3.65 m for each lane on the earthen embankment with an average height of 3 m. The owner of the project is the general authority for roads and bridges. Middle Ring Road East Cairo involves the construction of a new road with four lanes in each direction with a total length of 22 km and a total width of 35 m. The owner of the project is the general authority for roads and bridges. The project involves the construction of a new freeway axis with five lanes in each direction with a total length of 95 km and a total width of 80 m. The owner of the project is the ministry of housing, utilities and urban communities, central agency for reconstruction. Pedestrian lanes established on the road campus and other cars without intersections. The project starts from the intersection of Cairo Ismailia to Banha it involves the construction of a new road with four lanes in each direction with a total length of 61 km and a width of 3.6 m for each lane. The owner of the project is the general authority for roads and bridges. The project involves the expansion of the road by adding 3 lanes in each direction with a total length of 70 km and a total width of 7.5 m concrete pavement plus 10.95 m asphalt pavement for each direction. The owner of the project is the general authority for roads and bridges. The project is development and expansion of the road of Katameya - Ain Sokhna with a total length of 88 km and awidth of 6 lanes in each direction. The owner of the project is the ministry of defense. The project is maintenance and upgrading of the international coastal road (Sector 3B and Sector 6) with a total length of 70 km. The owner of the project is the general authority for roads and bridges. The project is strengthening and paving the path of Nakhl - Alttamadd with a total length of 50 km. The owner of the project is the general authority for roads and bridges. The project is strengthening and covering the road of Al-Shat - Abu Al-Karam - Qantara East (first stage) with a total length of 54 km. The owner of the project is the general authority for roads and bridges. The project is Maintenance and upgrading of the road of Zagazig – Belbeis with a total length of 28 km. The owner of the project is the general authority for roads and bridges. The project is Maintenance and re-paving of the road Mansoura - Sinblaoen with a total length of 21 km. The owner of the project is the general authority for roads and bridges. The project is maintenance and re-paving of the road Abasah-Abu-Akhdar-Zagazig with a total length of 19 km. The owner of the project is the general authority for roads and bridges.
100 90 80 70 60 50 40 30 20 10 0
Achieved certification level
Fig. 7
62
59
61
68
71
Case study 1
Case study 2
Case study 3
Case study 4
Case study 5
Case study 6
52
62
59
61
68
71
52
Implementation output of design and construction case studies.
Every element was compared to all other elements. Then weights were given to each element and full elements shown in Tables 2 and 3. Final weights inserted into excel model to be used in the producing of the final index of the model which will represent a certification level.
Non-certified, Certified, Silver, Gold and Green. The score range for these certification levels are 0–30, 31–50, 51–70, 71–90 and 91–100 respectively. Microsoft Excel used to facilitate the evaluation procedure as in Fig. 6. 4. Model application
3.3. Certification levels Certification levels developed to categorize sustainable highways as GreenLITES system. The certification levels are
In order to apply the developed Egyptian highways construction projects sustainability indexing model; we implemented it on some projects. In order to apply the model a project
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A.H. Ibrahim, M.A. Shaker 100 90 80 70 60 50 40 30 20 10 0
Achieved certification level
Fig. 8
77
77
77
77
Case study 9
Case study 10
Case study 11
Case study 12
68
77
77
77
68
68
Case study 7
Case study 8
77
68
Implementation output of operation and maintenance case studies.
has to be defined and establish the model elements. If any element of the model applicable in the project then a value equals 1 inserted in front of the item and a value equals 0 inserted in front of the item if not applicable in the project. The weight of the related element multiplied by the score of 1 or 0 then the summation of these scores gives the final total score of the project which represent a certification category. These case studies selected carefully from several existing projects to experience the indexing model. Summary of the projects will shows in Table 7. The output score of each case study shown in Figs. 7 and 8. 5. Research contribution This research aimed at establishing a comprehensive rating system, dedicated for sustainable highways in Egypt to help improving the efforts in the direction of applying sustainability and avoiding non-applicable elements in other existing systems, which involves non-existing conditions in the Egyptian highways construction projects nature. The contribution of this research can be summarized as follows: Developing a list of criteria to build up a sustainability rating system for Egyptian highways construction projects. AHP (Analytical Hierarchy Process) used to determine the weights of each criterion, proposing a conceptual module of highways sustainability index as basis of developing a highways construction projects sustainability rating system. Efforts done can be a first step to obtain a distinct Egyptian sustainable highways certification system. Guidelines developed to identify sustainability performance at different phases of the highways construction projects. Developing a sustainability index for Egyptian highways construction projects and can be used as a rating system. 6. Conclusion This study presents an organized methodology to assign sustainable practices in highways construction projects. Moreover, detailed steps of the developed model have been conducted to develop the proposed model. The focus of this research is to develop a sustainability index for highways construction projects, that assist highways
engineers, mangers and highways agencies to develop sustainable design, construction, operation and maintenance processes for highways. It acts as a sustainable measurement tool for the existing highways construction and maintenance practices. Not only to be confined just to the green building, but also to expand our green and sustainable knowledge to include highways sustainability and highways green practices. As a result of this study a certification levels developed to categorize sustainability in highways. However, the model can be used by other standards by modifying the weights or the requirements of the criteria to meet the required conditions and needs. For future studies, the paper’s approach can be generalized to be used as a guideline methodology for sustainable practices assignment in highways construction projects. This study presents a new studied case in highways construction projects sustainability assignment to sustainability assessment research knowledge where future sustainability studies can stand on to understand the process of producing a sustainability indexing model in construction projects. Therefore, the study methodology and steps can be generalized to be applied to similar sustainability assignment related to infrastructure projects. Declaration of Competing Interest The authors declare that there is no conflict of interest. References [1] S.I. Sarsam, Sustainable and green roadway rating system, Int. J. Sci. Res. Environ. Sci. 3 (3) (2015) 99–106, https://doi.org/ 10.12983/ijsres-2015-p0099-0106. [2] Adil Umer, Kasun Hewage, Husnain Haider, Rehan Sadiq, Sustainability assessment of roadway projects under uncertainty using Green Proforma: An index-based approach, Int. J. Sustain. Built Environ. 5 (2) (2016) 604–619, https://doi.org/ 10.1016/j.ijsbe.2016.06.002. [3] FHWA (2016), FHWA, federal highway administration, United States department of transportation. https:// www.sustainablehighways.org/203/what-is-a-sustainablehighway.html. [4] Gambaotese, J.A. (2005). ‘‘Sustainable roadway construction: Energy consumption and material waste generation of roadways” Proc., Construction Research Congress 183, ASCE, Reston, VA, 1–13. ; American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO), 2008.
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13 [14] A.A. Eisenman, Sustainable streets and highways: an analysis of green roads rating systems, Doctoral dissertation, Georgia Institute of Technology, 2012. [15] Institute for Sustainable Infrastructure, (2012), ‘‘Envision checklist”, http://www.sustainableinfrastructure.org/portal/ envision2/checklist.cfm. [16] D. Knuth, J. Fortmann, The development of I-LAST Illinois— Livable and sustainable transportation, in: Green Streets and Highways 2010: An Interactive Conference on the State of the Art and How to Achieve Sustainable Outcomes, 2010, pp. 495– 503. [17] A.P. Hu¨sser, Correlation Analysis, in: J. Matthes, C.S. Davis, R.F. Potter (Eds.), The International Encyclopedia of Communication Research Methods, 2017, doi:10.1002/ 9781118901731.iecrm0048. [18] M. Reddy, Reliability Analysis and Validity, Analysis. (2019), https://doi.org/10.1201/9780429023309-13. [19] Russell (2012). Russell, J., Cohn, Pareto Analysis, 9785511162423, 2012. [20] Thomas L. Saaty , Joseph M. Katz,” How to make a decision: The Analytic Hierarchy Process”, European Journal of Operational Research 48, Elsevier Science Publishers B.V. (North-Holland), Graduate School of Business, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA 15260, USA, 1990. [21] Thomas L. Saaty, Decision making with the analytic hierarchy process, Int. J. Services Sci. 1 (1) (2008), 2008, Katz Graduate School of Business, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA 15260, USA. [22] Reid et al., Sustainable Highways: A Short Guide’, J.M. Reid, J.W.E. Chandler, I. Schiavi, and A.P. Hewitt, Department for Transport, June 2008, London.
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