Environmental life cycle assessment comparison between two bridge types: reinforced concrete bridge and steel composite bridge

The concept of sustainable construction has attracted an increased attention. Bridge infrastructures and their belonged construction activities consume considerable material and energy, which is responsible for large environmental burdens. However, the environmental assessment of bridges has not been integrated into the decision-making process. This paper presents a systematic LCA method for quantifying the environmental impacts for bridges. The comparison study is performed between a reinforced concrete bridge and a steel bridge as an alternative design, with several key maintenance and EOL scenarios outlined. LCA study is performed with the ReCiPe methodology with life cycle inventories data from public database. Five selected mid-point level impact categories and the energy consumption are presented. The result shows that the steel bridge has a better environmental performance due to the recycling strategy, while the initial material manufacture is the most dominant phase that contributes large environmental impact in both design solutions.