Green Street Calculator 

With more attention than ever being focused on energy conservation, most people have focused on vehicles as the main target for improvements.  Vehicle fuel efficiency and hybrid technology, as well as other eco-friendly improvements such as bio-diesel will help make great strides to improving vehicles and saving energy.  When it comes to energy conservation, the road surface can also make a significant contribution! 

This calculator provides a way for you to see the positive contribution concrete pavements can make as part of a “Green Streets” program.  It allows you to see how much less energy is consumed with concrete pavement than other common materials.    

What are Green Streets?

Green Streets are about more than energy consumption.  Green Streets are those that:

1)      Have superior longevity and do not require frequent maintenance or resurfacing, which in turn provides these eco-friendly benefits:

a.       Consume lower quantities of raw materials, like aggregates, steel, asphalt, cement, etc.

b.      Reduce energy consumption associated with:

                                                    i.      Raw material processing

                                                  ii.      Rehabilitation

                                                 iii.      Reconstruction

c.       Reduce congestion – a huge and needless consumer of energy, which can be avoided with more investment in road capacity and more use of stronger pavements designed for longer life spans (+25 years)

d.      Improve environmental impacts, such as air quality and carbon dioxide (CO2) associated with:

                                                    i.      Manufacturing of materials and elements for road building

                                                  ii.      Construction of the infrastructure

                                                 iii.      Congestion – again, as this is a huge consumer of energy and significant source of CO2, which could be avoided with more investment in road capacity

2)      Maximize the incorporation of industrial by-products such as fly-ash and slag cement, allowing for:

a.       Reduced disposal of these materials (taking them out of the waste-stream)

b.      Improved pavement performance and longevity, and

c.       Reduced material costs

3)      Can be effectively renewed through surface planing or grinding (extending its service life by 10-20 years) and ultimately recycled at the end of its service life, resulting in:

a.       Lower pressures on our virgin aggregate resources, and

b.      Reduced energy use as a result of fewer materials-intensive pavement resurfacing (overlay) cycles, and less need for natural stone, gravel and sand extraction. 

4)      Have a surface that reflects light and does not intensify the Urban Heat Island effect, providing  associated economic and eco-friendly benefits:

a.       Improved pedestrian and vehicle nighttime visibility

b.      Reduced energy demand for street lighting,

c.       Realization of positive CO2 offsets, and

d.      Improved air quality

5)      Have a structure and surface that reduces energy consumption by:

a.       Requiring less fuel to build and maintain the pavement

b.      Deflecting less under loads so the vehicles travel with less resistance and improved fuel efficiency

How can Concrete Pavements Reduce Energy Consumption

Concrete is the strongest of all road surfacing materials.  It is designed to be very rigid.  As a result, concrete roads do not deflect much under heavy loads, so vehicles get better fuel mileage per gallon than on any other type of surface.  Several studies have concluded that less energy is required to propel a vehicle on a rigid surface than on a flexible one.  It is analogous to rolling a bowling ball on a hardwood floor versus on a rubber mat – on which surface will the bowling ball roll farther (or with greater ease)?  Physics, as well as simple intuition, gives us the answer.

Rigid pavements, like concrete, are built in just one layer and as a result require less fuel to construct than conventional pavements made from more flexible materials, like asphalt , that are built in several thin layers.  Every layer requires more delivery trucks, passes of the paving machine, rollers, etc.  In addition, concrete does not need to be heated to mix properly, and does not need to be maintained at a high temperature during placement like flexible pavement materials.  For these reasons, a concrete roadway requires less fuel to construct.

Just how much fuel and money can be saved using concrete pavement from these two factors alone?  Use the Green Street Calculator below to see…