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Nevada DOT Moves Toward Greener Pavement through Recycling

During the many years that the Nevada Department of Transportation redefined and developed its recycled asphalt pavement program, Changlin “Charlie” Pan – the agency’s chief material engineer – believes several of the most important lessons learned over that time period center on the development of specifications for the recycled materials as well as the construction methods for those recycling projects.

“Communication with the project manager during design and contractors during construction to find a balance between construction cost and quality of the finished product,” Pan explained, served as “the key” to success of developing the most suitable specification for the best product.

“In the long run, recycling/reuse efforts will reduce pavement life cycle costs and extend highway pavement life in between scheduled rehabilitation,” he added.

The Nevada DOT uses thousands of tons of recycled asphalt pavement each year within its cold-in-place or CIP recycling practices, the agency noted, and it also incorporates used tires into a rubberized asphalt roadway mix for some projects, too.

CIP Recycling is a method of reusing the existing asphalt surface by grinding off the top two to three inches of the existing asphalt surface and mixing the crushed asphalt in place with an emulsified asphalt recycling agent, then placing it back down with a paver. This restores existing material reducing the amount of outside material required to be hauled into and out of the project site. It is also a “cold process,” meaning that it requires minimal additional heat during the recycling process, resulting in a decrease in the amount of energy required to produce the final material.

The most prevalent recycling effort is the usage of recycled asphalt pavement or RAP.

Since 2010, nearly every ton of paved structural pavement in Nevada has included 15 percent of the mixture replaced with RAP, the Nevada DOT noted, which permits the regular use of recycled materials without significantly decreasing expected pavement lifespan. The widespread practice has permitted the usage of tens of thousands of tons of fully recycled pavement annually, reducing the use of fossil fuels and other raw materials and reducing waste material going into landfill, the agency said.

It’s all part of a long-terms effort by Nevada to find the best technologies for reducing and reusing various materials in pavement rehabilitation projects.

For example, a University of Nevada – Reno study noted that the Nevada DOT has been using CIP recycling methods since 1995. The long-term field performance of CIP projects throughout Nevada indicated that it is an effective rehabilitation treatment for roads with low to medium traffic levels. On top of that, Nevada continues to improve and develop the process to provide the most environmentally friendly specifications while maintaining quality pavements.

The Nevada DOT is also increasing utilization of a process which replaces a minimum 20 percent of the asphalt binder with ground tire rubber creating a mixture called an Asphaltic-Rubber Friction Course; a process proven to increase the lifespan and significantly reduce highway noise in certain applications such as over concrete pavements.

The agency also began using rubberized asphalt in the early 1990s and performed research to determine the most economical thickness in order to reduce cracking and durability problems; especially its resistance to cold-weather cracking and warm-weather rutting. Nevada then passed legislation in the early 2000s that stopped sending whole tires to landfills – requiring them to be recycled instead. Thus, the use of the recycled tire rubber in asphalt became one of the top uses to successfully eliminate environmental harm from the disposal of the old tires.

In fact, the Rubber Pavements Association states that between 500 and 2,000 scrap tires can be used in each lane mile of pavement. Depending on the application type used, a one-mile section of a four-lane highway will use between 2,000 and 8,000 tires, while “rubberized” pavements are also known to significantly reduce noise pollution.

Further permissible usage of recycled tire rubber results from paving grade asphalts to be substituted with a terminal blend asphalt that allows 10 percent replacement with processed recycled rubber. This process proved fiscally beneficial in the economic downturn of the late 2000s – known as the Great Recession – that drove down fuel and asphalt prices to record low levels. With careful evaluation, this material permitted the usage of more economical products with no perceivable reduction in the high-performance expectations of Nevada’s pavements.

Environmental News Highlights – May 6, 2020

A roundup of headlines curated for state transportation environmental professionals

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Environmental News Highlights – April 29, 2020

A roundup of headlines curated for state transportation environmental professionals

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AASHTO NEWS

Second Step Taken to Finalize New WOTUS Rule – AASHTO Journal

COVID-19

Is Coronavirus Reducing Noise Pollution? – Forbes

Coronavirus is not just a health crisis — it’s an environmental justice crisis – Grist

Filling a post-coronavirus commuting void with bike lanes: Working at home – Cleveland Plain Dealer (Ohio)

COVID19: smart mobility goes viral – 2025 AD (Commentary)

Environmental Justice During COVID-19: Communities bear extra burden – GreatLakesNow (Michigan)

McEachin Letter Urges HHS to Address Disparities in COVID-19 Outcomes for Environmental Justice Communities – Congressman Donald McEachin – House.gov (Virginia)

FEDERAL ACTION

All Projects Being Constructed Under Nationwide Permit 12 at Risk – JD Supra

EPA restores state water quality standards – The Lens (Washington)

Trump’s rewrite is finalized. What happens now? – E&E News

Unmanned Aerial Systems – FHWA

U.S. Transportation Officials Seek Alternative Tech for GPS – IEEE Spectrum

EPA finalizes rule officials fear will allow pollution of streams and wetlands – Colorado Springs Indy (Colorado)

TRB RESOURCES

Transportation, Environment, and Energy: An Integrated Research Symposium – Will not be held as scheduled – TRB

TRB Webinar: What Role Does Ecology Have in Sustainable Transportation? – TRB

TRB Webinar: Designing landscapes to enhance roadside water management – TRB

TRB Webinar: The intersection between health and transportation – TRB

NEPA

Stimulating Clean Infrastructure Through NEPA Reform – RealClear Energy

Environmental lawyer reflects on 50th anniversary of NEPA – ROI-NJ.com (New Jersey)

Close to Home: Don’t gut America’s fundamental environmental law – Press-Democrat (Commentary) (California)

California awards $500 million in transit and rail project grants – Mass Transit

Draft PEA On Snow, Soil Moisture Monitoring Network In The Upper Missouri River Basin Available For Comment – Yankton Daily Press and Dakotan (North Dakota)

Port NOLA Board of Commissioners Adopts PIER Plan – WGNO-TV (Louisiana)

INFRASTRUCTURE RESILIENCE AND SUSTAINABILITY

Wood energy as a climate change solution – The Hill (Opinion)

Using Millions of Maggots to Slow Down Climate Change – Bloomberg Green (Subscription Required)

New Systems of Governance Are Needed to Address Climate Change – Government Executive

The Health Emergency That’s Coming to West Louisville – CityLab (Commentary) (Kentucky)

Ann Arbor council not ready to adopt A2Zero carbon-neutrality plan – MLive.com (Michigan)

Without fanfare, Houston unveils Climate Action Plan, shooting for carbon neutrality by 2050 – Houston Chronicle (Subscription Required (Texas))

State: Climate change to impact infrastructure, livestock, water – GoErie.com (Pennsylvania)

Bold investments in clean energy and transportation infrastructure will help lead us out of a recession – CalMatters (Commentary) (California)

Senate Committee Bills Would Steer Billions To Water Infrastructure – Waterways Journal

Florida’s climate change efforts ‘disjointed,’ former state resilience officer found – Tampa Bay Times (Florida)

Sunrise GW signs Earth Day letter supporting path to cut D.C. greenhouse gas emissions – The GW Hatchet (District of Columbia)

In the ‘climate refuge’ city of Duluth, a fight brews over the hometown utility – MinnPost (Minnesota)

50 years later, Earth Day’s unsolved problem: How to build a more sustainable world – MSN

50 Years of Earth Day: What’s Better Today, and What’s Worse – New York Times (Subscription Required)

ASU achieves carbon neutrality, ranked among most sustainable universities in the world – ASU Now (Arizona)

Earth Day 2020: Corvias Partnerships Supports Resiliency, Sustainability and Energy Independence – Olean Times Herald (Subscription Required)

AIR QUALITY

Air quality in US dramatically worse than in prior years, says new ‘State of the Air’ report – CNN

Washington has its cleanest spring air in 25 years: How air quality has improved during the coronavirus crisis – The Washington Post (Subscription Required)

Princeton scientist solves air quality puzzle: Why is ozone pollution persisting in Europe despite environmental laws banning it? – Princeton University

The coronavirus crisis means we may have already reached peak carbon – CNBC

Pioneering the possibilities: N.J.’s energy and resource leaders pave way for a clean, green future – Jersey’s Best (New Jersey)

ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE

Washington State AG Ferguson Rolls Out Environmental Justice Initiative in Honor of Earth Day – Gonzaga University (Washington state)

SFR Elements: A look at disproportionate environmental impacts – Santa Fe Reporter (New Mexico)

An Earth Day Conversation About Environmental Justice With Pioneer Vernice Miller-Travis – Union of Concerned Scientists (Blog)

HEALTH AND HUMAN ENVIRONMENT/ACTIVE TRANSPORTATION

TAAR helps fund Norte program – Traverse City Record-Eagle (Michigan)

Billings trails connecting community to outdoors in time of pandemic – Billings Gazette (Montana)

SF Opens Select Streets to Pedestrians, Bicyclists Amid Pandemic – KNTV-TV video (California)

Could better measures mean better management for urban micro-mobility options? – Mass Transit

Connecticut DOT Marks Earth Day 2020 – The Newtown Bee (Connecticut)

WATER QUALITY/WETLANDS

Establishing a statewide water quality database – High Plains Journal (Kansas) (Subscription Required)

New Opportunity: Prairie Pothole Water Quality and Wildlife Program – NewsDakota.com (North Dakota)

WILDLIFE & ECOSYSTEMS

Fresh Forest Regrowth May Offset Climate Hit From Australia Fires – Bloomberg Green (Subscription Required)

Lake Elsinore at highest level since 2012 after rising 6 feet – The Press-Enterprise (California)

Call for Research Proposals – TERI Database

What is TERI?

The Transportation and Environmental Research Ideas (TERI) database is a central storehouse for tracking and sharing new transportation and environmental research ideas. The Center for Environmental Excellence by AASHTO maintains TERI and keeps all content current. Suggestions for new ideas are welcome from practitioners across the transportation and environmental community.

Examples of Recent Proposals

Context-Sensitive Design Options for Workhorse Bridges in Rural Historic Districts
Mitigation Values of Wildlife Crossing Enhancements with Transportation Projects
Development of Programmatic Agreements for Project-Level Particulate Matter “Hot-Spot” Air Quality Analyses

Proposals are due by June 1, 2020.

For more information and to submit your ideas, visit https://environment.transportation.org/teri_database.

Maryland DOT Division Joins New Chesapeake Bay Restoration Effort

The Maryland Department of Transportation’s State Highway Administration is launching a pilot education program with Living Classrooms Foundation that will encourage activities to reduce pollution to Maryland waterways and the Chesapeake Bay, with the overall success of this endeavor to be measured under Maryland Department of the Environment (MDE).

“Working with Living Classrooms and other Bay partners, this program will help us empower one of our greatest resources in cleaning up the Chesapeake Bay – our young people,” explained Gregory Slater, Maryland’s transportation secretary, in a statement. “Together we will educate future stewards of the environment with a program that’s informative, innovative, and driven by data to achieve real progress in restoring the bay.”

He said SHA is investing in the program as part of the agency’s commitment to pollution reduction goals under its municipal stormwater permit. Meanwhile, MDE will work with SHA and Living Classrooms to establish a scientific basis for credits SHA would receive toward its stormwater permit obligations; credits for “environmentally positive actions” resulting from this educational program.

Those “actions” might include reducing the use of fertilizer, building rain gardens, using rain barrels to reduce polluted stormwater runoff, or increasing the use of public transit to reduce emissions that can deposit nutrient pollution in the bay.

The agency noted that this pilot project is designed to tie environmental education and pollutant reductions together through rigorous social and scientific monitoring. When students are moved to install rain gardens for capturing stormwater runoff or take mass transit for reducing harmful emissions, those actions can be tracked, pollutant reductions can be measured, and stormwater discharges can be reduced.

The scientific basis for crediting an educational best management practice supports the Chesapeake Bay Program’s Citizen Stewardship Outcome Management Strategy, which holds that the long-term success and sustainability of the Chesapeake Bay restoration effort will ultimately depend on the actions and support of the 17 million residents who call the watershed home.

Slater, who previously served as SHA’s administrator, said the partnership with Living Classrooms was sparked by ongoing concern with litter that affects the health of the bay – noting that in 2018, the Maryland DOT spent more than $9 million on litter abatement.

“Maryland DOT’s environmental programs are a key part of our mission and we are continuously looking for innovative partnerships in yielding sustainable results,” said Secretary Slater. “This partnership recognizes that education is just as important as our physical efforts to tackle pollution.”

WSDOT: Incentives Key to Expanding EV Usage

Washington state has zipped beyond its goal of having 50,000 plug-in electric vehicles (EVs) registered by 2020, thanks in part to the Washington State Department of Transportation, which plays a leading role in developing EV infrastructure and encouraging EV ownership.

By the end of 2019, drivers in Washington had registered 53,307 plug-in EVs, representing a 24 percent year-to-year increase and a 222 percent increase in just four years. The number of publicly available charging ports also has increased since 2015, from 949 to nearly 3,000 at the end of 2019, according to the WSDOT Gray Notebook.

WSDOT was an early advocate of EVs and developed “the first and most robust highway corridor in the nation in 2012 for electric vehicle charging,” explained Tonia Buell, the agency’s project development manager.

More recently, the department created the Zero Emission Vehicle Infrastructure Partnerships Program or “ZEVIPP” for short, which provides about $1 million a year in grants to non-profit organizations, government entities, transit agencies and tribes to build charging locations near highways exits along major routes in Washington. Grant recipients must have public and private-sector partners, and because the grant covers only part of the project cost, the partners usually provide the remaining financing, Buell said.

Funding for ZEVIPP comes from a $75 annual state registration fee for plug-in electric and hybrid vehicles. Part of that fee also supports sales tax incentives to grow EV ownership, which makes building charging infrastructure a better investment for private companies. The parallel funding to promote EV ownership and EV infrastructure development is critical because each element relies on the other, she noted.

“People want to know they’re able to charge their vehicle whenever they need it, so to have that growth in EV ownership, you have to develop the charging infrastructure,” Buell emphasized.

WSDOT practices what it preaches, having replaced 23 percent of its gas and diesel passenger vehicles with EVs. Washington Governor Jay Inslee (D) has taken it a step further, ordering all state agencies to purchase EVs instead of internal combustion engine vehicles if the EV option is available.

Having top-level buy-in and leadership is “a very critical component to making this work” for any state DOT that wants to develop a strong EV program, Buell explained. Governments will have to make an investment in promoting EV ownership and developing the infrastructure, at least until EVs become more ubiquitous. “I think the tipping point will be when EVs are around 15 percent of all vehicles; right now, we’re at about 1 percent,” she said. “That’s going to happen when the purchase price of the EVs is equivalent to internal combustion engine vehicles, and we won’t need the purchase incentives.”

In Addressing Climate Change, State DOTs Change Approach

Climate change and the swirling air of unpredictability around its effects are creating new challenges for transportation officials: dealing with damage from extreme storms that can plague the Midwest, the rise of coastal sea levels, and increased wildfire activity in the southwest.

A detailed understanding of climate threats has become essential when constructing a safe, sustainable transportation system. To that end, the Washington State Department of Transportation completed several studies on the subject, including the Climate Impacts Vulnerability Assessment Reportand theClimate Change and Innovative Stormwater Control,which help the department analyze risks and address potential hazards.

Carol Lee Roalkvam, WSDOT’s environmental policy branch manager, noted that her department initially addressed the matter of climate change in 2011 by “conducting a statewide vulnerability assessment for all of our assets, with help from the FHWA [the Federal Highway Administration]. We have relied on that assessment since concerning climate-related threats or vulnerability.”

She highlighted one large project that included extreme weather considerations: State Route 520, a 13-mile highway that connects Seattle to Redmond and includes the new Evergreen Point Floating Bridge; the longest floating bridge in the world. That bridge, which opened in April 2016, is built to withstand sustained winds of up to 89 mph. “We used the best available science to brace for changes projected for the future,” Roalkvam said of the construction.

Another example is WSDOT’s Fish Passage Barrier Correction Program. To date, the department has completed 345 fish passage barrier corrections, allowing access to approximately 1,155 miles of potential upstream habitat for fish. Eventually, it will guide the replacement of hundreds of small culverts to provide more access to fish attempting to reach habitat. The new fish-friendly culverts are designed to realign and restore stream channels for fish migration while simultaneously providing more resilient water crossings.

Another concern at WSDOT is the issue of sea level rise and its impact on ferry terminals and coastal highways. At the Mukilteo Multimodal Terminal Project, in the town of Mukilteo, the department projected sea level rise out to the year 2100, with the project team also examining the impact of upland stormwater runoff. Examining saltwater and freshwater flooding risks during the lifespan of the terminal were part of the planning.

There are similar concerns in Utah, where the Utah Department of Transportation just released information concerning a variety of projects that are being built with addressing climate change in mind. The two largest are the U.S. 89 Farmington to I-84 – a $489 million projectthat encompasses converting a 9.5-mile section of U.S. 89 to a freeway by widening the road to three lanes in each direction – and the Bangerter Highway Three Interchanges; a $222 million project that calls for the replacement of existing intersections with freeway-style interchanges along the highway at three new locations.

“We always take into account extreme weather conditions when designing and building our road construction projects,” explained John Gleason, a Utah DOT spokesperson. “In Utah, we see it all: blizzards, ice, flooding, mudslides, and scorching summer heat. We have to use durable and sustainable materials and design our projects to stand up to the elements.”

WSDOT’s Roalkvam thinks planning for such events has been taken to a new level, as she “definitely” sees “an increased understanding among her agency’s technical employees and planners of how their work can influence long-term transportation system resilience, especially related to climate change.”

Can Highway Construction Achieve “Net Zero” Carbon Emissions?

What does it mean to be “net zero” in the transportation world today? When talking about carbon emissions, it refers to achieving an overall balance between emissions produced and emissions taken out of the atmosphere.

For example, the building industry has been working toward “net zero” infrastructure for years. According to the World Green Building Council, buildings are currently responsible for 39 percent of global energy-related carbon emissions: with 28 percent coming from operational emissions – from the energy needed to heat, cool, and power the structures – and the remaining 11 percent from materials and construction.

Though highway roads and structures do not have the same level of operating emissions as a building, “embodied” carbon from the construction process significantly adds to transportation’s carbon footprint. Embodied carbon is the carbon footprint of a material. It considers how many greenhouse gases (GHGs) are released throughout the supply chain. This includes the extraction of materials from the ground, transport, refining, processing, assembly, in-use and finally its end of life recycling of disposal.

The building industry now believes that embodied carbon in projects can be reduced 10 percent to 20 percent without increasing capital costs. One new study out of Sweden believes net-zero carbon emissions in construction supply chains can be reached by 2045.

But what exactly does this mean for highway and bridge construction? Many believe that policy is the starting point for significant reductions in carbon in highway projects. Globally, many countries are already requiring “net zero” infrastructure design. In Sweden, for instance, large transport infrastructure projects (roads, rail, tunnels) are required to calculate and report embodied carbon and monetary incentives awarded if embodied carbon is below a specified target.

Some state departments of transportation are already working toward similar goals. For example, the Hawaii Department of Transportation started a testing project in 2019 using a concrete mix injected with waste carbon dioxide (CO2). The CO2 is mixed into the concrete using CarbonCure technology. The resulting product traps carbon dioxide in mineral form within the concrete and improves the comprehensive strength of the material.

The test project involves a pour of 150 cubic yards of carbon-injected concrete next to an equivalent pour of standard concrete mix on an access road for the Kapolei Interchange. This test will allow the Hawaii DOT to do a side-by-side comparison of the carbon reducing mix versus a standard mix to determine specifications for the use of carbon-injected concrete for road projects in the future.

“We’ve seen the benefits to CO2 mineralized concrete and will be using it when appropriate in Hawaii’s road and bridge projects,” explained Ed Sniffen, Hawaii DOT’s deputy director for highways. “The availability of environmentally friendly materials such as carbon injected concrete is necessary for us to move forward in reducing the carbon footprint of our construction projects.”

In an interview with Smart Cities Dive, Sniffen added that the carbon-injected material has turned out to be stronger and more workable, with no increase in cost over traditional concrete. “The overall carbon savings is significant,” he said. “We reduce it overall about 1,500 pounds into the environment. Now, that doesn’t sound like a lot, but really, that equals up to one car driving 1,600 miles continuously. So, it builds up quite a bit.”

How can such “embodied” carbon in highway construction be reduced? In general, highway designers can use Life Cycle Analysis based tools to determine the environmental footprint of a whole project and search for ways to reduce life cycle GHG emissions and other impacts through strategies such as:

Ensuring efficient use of materials (i.e. “right-sizing”)
Selecting materials with more efficient manufacturing processes
Minimizing transportation impacts through use of local materials
Using robust materials that require less maintenance, repair, and refurbishment
Choosing materials that can be reused or recycled instead of landfilled

Although there may be a learning curve and increased costs initially to incorporate embodied carbon reduction into construction decisions, it appears that the incremental costs of incorporating this analysis is comparatively small for the potential benefit it could provide. Complicated decisions and life cycle analysis must be done from the planning phase of the project through design and construction to significantly reduce embodied carbon and hit the “net zero” goal. In the future, these efforts will be driven by government policy and environmental stewardship of firms and contractors. It is inevitable that the wave of “net zero” goals in the building industry will continue to transition into the highway industry as well.

Report Focuses on Integrating ‘Tribal Expertise’ into Transportation Projects

The Transportation Research Board recently issued a National Cooperative Highway Research Program report that explores how “unique tribal perspectives and expertise” could boost tribal engagement in a variety of surface transportation projects.

Additional resources for this report – entitled NCHRP Web-Only Document 281: Integrating Tribal Expertise into Processes to Identify, Evaluate, and Record Cultural Resources – include a Quick-Reference Guide and a PowerPoint Presentation.

This NCHRP report concluded that – from the tribal perspective — state agencies need to make sure to reach out to tribes to learn what their research questions and interests may be and bring these into the research design for a project, as part of thoughtful, collaborative research.

In addition, state agencies need to be willing to work with tribes and have productive conversations, including the ability to switch easily between scientific jargon and standard language to build understanding.

One tribe interviewed for this research report noted that sometimes there are differences in perspective – something both parties, tribes as well as state agencies, need to overcome.

“It is important to talk through any challenges,” the tribe noted in its response. “The bottom line is that sustained communication leads to effective consultation and in turn to collaboration.”

This NCHRP follows several initiatives at both the federal and state level to improve the integration of tribal needs within the planning process for surface transportation projects.

For example, in October 2019, the U.S. Department of Transportation proffered a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking that aims to establish a tribal transportation self-governance program – the result of what the agency is calling a “successful three-year negotiated consensus rulemaking process” between representatives of North American Indian tribes, USDOT, and the Department of the Interior.

USDOT added that “among the many benefits” of the proposed self-governance program is streamlining transportation funding distribution to North American Indian tribes – creating a “less onerous” regulatory framework while promoting greater self-sufficiency among tribal governments.

State governments are engaged in similar efforts. In December 2019, the Georgia Department of Transportation signed a new consolatory agreement with the Federal Highway Administration, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Savannah District, the Advisory Council on Historic Preservation, the Georgia State Historic Preservation Office, and the state’s 20 federally recognized Native American Indian Tribes.

That agreement establishes a framework for approving all types transportation projects throughout the state – from widening highways to the location of new bypasses – while protecting ancestral tribal lands.

AASHTO Releases Earth Day Video

In recognition of the Earth Day’s 50th anniversary, the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials is releasing a two-part series entitled Recycling, Transportation and You.

Produced by Transportation TV, this series highlights how state departments of transportation play a major role in recycling asphalt pavement – long considered to be the most recycled product in America – as well as how old tires are broken down into small chunks and reused to make new asphalt pavement.

The series also examines the impact everyday Americans have on the volume of trash produced by the nation. Did you know that the average American throws away roughly five pounds of garbage each day? That adds up to 139 million tons of trash dumped into landfills every year.

Thus, this video series also includes recycling information for the general public in terms of bringing those numbers down.

FEDERAL ACTION