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Case Studies

Greenhouse Model For Major Road Construction Projects in South Australia (2009-2010)

Client

Department for Transport, Energy and Infrastructure

Project Description

As part of a complete approach to reducing the carbon foot-print of a road, planners and designers are encouraged to consider the relative contributions of materials, fuel consumption and waste generation during the course of the construction, operation, maintenance and deconstruction of the road. To determine the actual greenhouse gas impact of a project over the life of its use (lifecycle impact) it is necessary to establish its total direct footprint which includes:

  • An emissions inventory (resulting from actions that are part of the construction of the road infrastructure)
  • The ongoing maintenance of the constructed assets (including the associated rail operations, ancillary facilities and street lighting as well as the maintenance of the core asset - the road pavement and its surfaces)
  • Emissions from vehicles using the roads (comparing the base case to the project case). The overall network wide impact should be examined in this context and if it results in an improvement then offset against the first two considerations.

The overall network wide impact should be examined in this context and if it results in an improvement then offset against its construction and maintenance footprint.

InfraPlan Involvement

InfraPlan was engaged therefore to develop an Operational Greenhouse Gas Emissions Model (OGHGM) as a project planning tool for the Department of Transport Energy and Infrastructure (DTEI) in South Australia. The model allows the difference in ‘direct’ operational greenhouse gas emissions generated between ‘Base Case’ and ‘Project Case’ of SA road construction projects to be assessed. The model also has a limited sensitivity analysis tool to test certain assumptions/parameters that are likely to change over the planning period.

The OGHGM relies on outputs from a transport model or a transport planner’s estimates of network changes. This paper has specifically focussed on transport planning outputs from the Department of Transport, Energy and Infrastructure’s strategic transport model (MASTEM), which can successfully predict future travel behaviour including any potential induced travel demand.

The OGHGM applies the latest fuel consumption and speed data for the SA fleet, sourced from the University of South Australia and the most up to date emission factors contained in the Australian Government Department of Climate Change National Greenhouse Accounts (NGA) Factors.

An extension of this model has been developed as a Sensitiv-ity Analysis Policy Tool to test a number of variables and their effect on the current and projected transport system wide
Greenhouse gas emissions.

Timeframe

The Development of the ‘Operational Greenhouse Model For Major Road Construction Projects in SA’ commenced in June 2009 and was completed in January 2010.

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