Recycling practices for airport pavement construction: Valorisation of on-site materials

Environmental sustainability in transportation infrastructures can be achieved by using recycled materials. Commonly, road and airport pavement construction is identified as a greatly polluting factor for greenhouse gas and odor emissions. This paper presents a case study concerning two rehabilitation methods adopted in a reconstruction project of two taxiway pavements in a major Italian airport. The paper describes the entire process of rehabilitation works starting from the preliminary investigations to the final quality controls. It includes the pavements design phase and the materials optimization and environmental assessment, which is the core of the research. The findings show that recycling does not necessarily result in lower performance. In fact, up to 65% of CO2e emissions were saved by constructing the recycled pavements. Performance was instead comparable to a standard asphalt pavement. Finally, the paper shows the eco-efficiency of including low-energy treatments and sustainable strategies into pavement construction to enhance environmental savings and cost effectiveness in airport construction practices.