Environmental Evaluation of gravel emulsion

This paper reports the result of a study on environmental impact of road construction techniques with bitumen emulsion. This review was limited to overall indicators (GreenHouse Gas emissions, energy and natural resources consumption). Road materials with bitumen emulsion are compared with conventional techniques as Hot Mixes Asphalts. Then, three cases of road maintenance are shown (lightly or highly deformed reshaping, and structural maintenance). Several maintenance solutions are proposed that are deemed to be equivalent. Those solutions combine binder and wearing courses as necessary to compare the hot mix asphalts and cold materials with bitumen emulsion in cases of realistic use. These calculations validate favorable a priori considerations to the cold techniques, and quantify the environmental benefits regarding conventional hot mix asphalts.