Over one quarter of the world's greenhouse gas emissions are caused by transportation and especially road transportation. It is critical for the road construction industry to become part of the solution by proactively implementing technology and construction practices that assist in achieving these challenging emission reduction goals. In addition to improved asphalt technology, better construction and rehabilitation methods, and optimized pavement selection based on life-cycle cost analysis, more attention needs to be focused on pavement sustainability. This paper will consider some aspects of perpetual pavement sustainability based on a practical application of the concept on the Red Hill Valley Parkway project in the City of Hamilton, Ontario. The assessment of the overall impacts of construction on the environment during road building and maintenance operations used in this paper are based on European experience, particularly in France. In addition, the Pavement Life-cycle Assessment Tool for Environmental and Economic Effects (PaLATE) computer program developed at the University of California, Berkeley was used to calculate the energy consumption and gas emission during initial construction and the pavement maintenance and rehabilitation. For the covering bastract of this conference see ITRD number E216597.
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