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The transition from Building Information Modelling (BIM) to Heritage Building Information Modelling (H-BIM) is intended to pursue an adequate knowledge of the artefact that is to be preserved, progressively replacing the traditional methods of restoration and structural reinforcement projects with new tools for the management of both existing information and new interventions. The aim of the paper is to show the application of the H-BIM method to a stone pavement road located in the Archaeological Site of Pompeii. In detail, starting from a laser scanner-based survey, juxtaposed with coordinated points georeferenced through a total station, point clouds were handled by means of several BIM-based tools to perform the road design process, starting from the digital elevation model (DEM) and proceeding to the corridor representation. Subsequently, a visual programming application based on Python language was adopted to update the corridor information by means of the object property set. As preliminary results, a tool, complete with graphical and non-graphical information, is proposed to be used in conservation, maintenance and restoration projects.

The growing need to recover and digitally represent heritage infrastructure has led to the challenge of choosing different Building Information Modeling (BIM) platforms that will be used to manage the implementation of the semi-automatic design and reconstruction processes of reverse engineering modeling. The approach to the integrated management of information derived through Heritage-BIM (H-BIM) has been applied to Via del Duomo, one of the main roads in the old town of Naples, Italy. During preliminary inspections of the construction site it was possible to acquire geometric features and pavement/subgrade information, as well as to conduct a photographic survey, with 1,618 photographs collected. Subsequently, the acquired data were processed, using different BIM-based tools, to obtain the 3D mesh; objects were then converted from pure graphic solids into parametric entities by proposing a specific algorithm. Then a library, with the inclusion of all the possible stone paving package alternatives, including all the structural and stress-deforming characteristics such as Young Modulus (E), Poisson coefficient (n), and Safety factor (SF), was created. In this way, it is possible to associate to the generic element the optimal pavement package solution, depending on different construction contexts. As preliminary result, a dynamic model that updates its information package and modifies the output of the analysis every time the data worksheet is integrated with new collected results is proposed for further pavement management operations evaluation.

In recent years, Building Information Modeling (BIM) tools have increased the productivity of infrastructure projects through more efficient information management and by fostering communication between different actors in the process [1,2,3]. At the same time, the growing need to introduce sustainability indicators, calculated through the life cycle assessment (LCA) methodology, has prompted an increase in the amount of data to be managed throughout the life cycle of an infrastructure project [4,5]. The present work consists of developing a BIM-based LCA tool aimed at the calculation of several environmental indicators through the informative content of a road pavement BIM; the tool is specifically designed to avoid errors in LCA calculations during the early design stages, reduce the engineer’s effort through automation and support sustainable decision making in the infrastructure domain. An LCA-based pavement information model was developed by defining and adding several customized property sets, respectively, containing the specific road pavement materials‘ features and some selected environmental impact categories; a bidirectional information exchange path was established between BIM and the LCA tool to automate the LCA calculations and dynamically update the mentioned environmental indicators’ property sets, whenever the geometry of the pavement and the asphalt materials’ features change. The developed tool allows one to practically integrate pavement-related environmental sustainability requirements into BIM projects, with specific reference to asphalt pavement solutions that apply circular economy principles (i.e., secondary raw materials and cold recycling technologies), in light of more environmentally friendly pavement construction practices.

The continuous growth of waste is generating worldwide more and more increasing related environmental concerns. Anything that is not recycled or recuperated from waste represents a loss of raw materials and other production factors used in the manufacture, transport and consumer phases of the product. This research explored the potential of three waste namely Construction and Demolition (CD) waste, Fly Ash (FA), and Jet Grouting (JG) waste as fillers in comparison to the traditional limestone one for making hot asphalt mastics for road pavement, through a rheological analysis and environmental compatibility tests towards the release of potentially toxic elements. A total of eight asphalt mastics were prepared by using two filler-to-binder weight ratios (f/b) of 0.5 and 1 for blending each filler with a neat bitumen 50/70 penetration grade. The Frequency Sweep test and the Multiple Stress Creep and Recovery (MSCR) test were carried out to investigate the rheological properties of the asphalt mastics. Asphalt mastics containing FA and JG fillers were found to be more mechanically and environmentally efficient than traditional limestone mastic in particular by adopting an f/b equal to 1 where it was observed higher complex shear modulus values, G*, (on average 50% compared to the traditional asphalt mastic) and lower non-recoverable creep compliance values, Jnr, (on average 35% compared to the traditional asphalt mastic) at all test temperatures investigated. Based on the suggested ranking methodology, CD emerged as the filler performing in the same way of the traditional one. All the waste containing mastics, showed up noticeable environmental compatibility, being the potentially toxic elements completely immobilized into the mastics’ structure e practically not releasable into acidic water, highlighting the waste recycling for road pavements as primary strategy to immobilize hazardous wastes.

The latest advancements in road asphalt materials and construction technologies have increased the difficulty for engineers to select the appropriate pavement design solution with consideration of life cycle assessment (LCA) methodology. On the other hand, infrastructure building information modeling (BIM) tools allow practitioners to efficiently store and manage large amounts of data, supporting decision making in road asphalt pavement design and management. This research contributes to setting up a dynamic LCA tool for the specific evaluation of designed road asphalt pavement solutions involving alternative materials and advanced recycling technologies; the tool is structured to minimize the need of input data by the designer, that are usually unknown during the early design stage, and automate the entire LCA calculation process to reduce the designer efforts and avoid any errors during data transcription. A traditional BIM workflow was integrated with additional user-defined property sets to simultaneously compute the environmental impact of the entire life cycle of the asphalt pavement, and dynamically update the result basing on the design thickness of the pavement layers, the specific features of materials and an external database of several life cycle impact category indicators that can be edited and updated gradually during more advanced design stage. The proposed BIM-LCA aims to be a practical and dynamic way to integrate environmental considerations into road pavement design, encouraging the use of digital tools in road industry and ultimately supporting a pavement maintenance decision-making process oriented toward circular economy.

The use of building information modeling (BIM) for infrastructures is on the rise but the use of the life cycle cost analysis (LCCA) integrated within the BIM environment itself to analyze multiple design alternatives and set up a proper maintenance plan has not yet been developed. It is possible to integrate evaluation of maintenance and waste recovery strategies, minimizing costs and the use of raw materials. A visual programming tool was exploited to set up an application that applies the LCCA methodology to a road pavement project in the early design phase, returning the total maintenance cost updated to the year of construction, the number of maintenance interventions, and the residual value of accumulated fatigue damage. The execution of the LCCA tool dynamically updates the properties of the BIM model with the resulting pavement management plan and returns multiple outputs, giving to the user the possibility of making further assessments and store the data as needed. The developed application shows that BIM is a promising tool to implement more complex and useful analyses that can reduce the maintenance planning time and allow the designer to choose between multiple alternative solutions already in the early design phase, bringing consistent cost savings through the possibility of finding the minimum cost solution based on the specific project needs in compliance with the quality and safety criteria to be guaranteed for the road category.

The circular economy aims to change the paradigm in relation to the linear economy by limiting the environmental impact and waste of resources, as well as increasing efficiency at all stages of the product economy; the recent warnings about waste pollution and the limits of natural resources are encouraging its development. The purpose of this research is to investigate the potential environmental and mechanical benefits of reusing two different waste, namely jet grouting waste (JGW) and plastic waste (PW) for producing hot asphalt mastics made up of bitumen and filler: the JGW comes from the soil consolidation activities during pavement construction, while the PW, a mixture of high-density polyethylene, low density polyethylene, polypropylene and polyethylene terephthalate derives from a plastic recycling plant. First, three mastics engineered by keeping constant viscosity and a filler over bitumen ratio of 0.3 for the asphalt mastic with limestone filler (LM), 0.29 for the mastic with JGW (JGWM) and 0.1 for the solution containing PW (PWM), were investigated through a dynamic shear rheometer to explore their rheological behavior. Second main step concerned the life cycle assessment (LCA) of the three asphalt mastics that, in turn, are included into the base layer of a flexible road pavement by following ReCiPe impact assessment methodology. Primary results in terms of mechanical performance demonstrated that: 1) JGWM outperformed LM in terms of complex shear modulus, which resulted 19% higher than that of LM in the temperature range below 30 °C, and 2) PWM returned on average 30% lower non-recoverable creep compliance at 50 °C under 0.1 and 3.2 kPa than remaining solutions under analysis. LCA outcomes showed, on the one hand, that PWM had the best environmental performance, expressing the lowest damage to human health, ecosystems and resource availability indicators, returning on average 34% and 19% lower indicators than LM and JGWM, respectively. On the other hand, JGWM still represented an overall improvement of the environmental performance compared to LM, returning the best performance in terms of damage to human health, which lowers by 23%, due to the reduction of the output waste stream.

The growing number of vehicles is related to the overall growth in the consumption of fuel from fossil fuels or electricity, so new ways are being sought to increase the efficiency of propulsion or the recovery of energy from driving. This article deals with the possibility of recovering kinetic energy from the movement of vehicles, specifically from the air flowing around a passing car. The subject of measurements and simulations were parameters influencing the amount of recovered energy such as the location of the wind turbine near the road, its distance from the side of the moving vehicle, turbine height from the road, speed and size of the vehicle front (car, bus, truck). The measured values were compared with the values from the simulations performed in the program Fluent, and it was shown that in passenger cars the highest air flow is 0.5–1 m above the road and the closest possible to vehicles. With regard to feasibility, the smallest distance was considered to be 0.5 m from the side of the vehicle. Measurements in real traffic showed delay of the air flow behind the vehicle by 1.5–3 s depending on the size of the vehicle and the need for sufficient traffic density. The high intensity of vehicles in urban and suburban areas predestines them to deploy this system. Conversely, in rail transport, given the low frequency of vehicles, the use of this system is unjustified.

In order to meet the environmental needs caused by large plastic waste accumulation, in the road construction sector, an effort is being made to integrate plastic waste with the function of polymer into asphalt mixtures; with the purpose of improving the mechanical performance of the pavement layers. This study focuses on the effect of a recycled mixture of plastic waste on the chemical, thermal, and rheological properties of designed asphalt blends and on the identification of the most suitable composition blend to be proposed for making asphalt mixture through a dry modification method. Thermo-gravimetric analysis, differential scanning calorimetry, and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy analysis were carried out to investigate the effect of various concentrations and dimensions of plastic waste (PW) on the neat binder (NB). The frequency sweep test and the multiple stress creep and recovery test were performed to analyze the viscoelastic behavior of the asphalt blends made up of PW in comparison with NB and a commercial modified bitumen (MB). It has been observed that the presence of various types of plastic materials having different melting temperatures does not allow a total melting of PW powder at the mixing temperatures. However, the addition of PW in the asphalt blend significantly improved the aging resistance without affecting the oxidation process of the plastic compound present in the asphalt blend. Furthermore, when the asphalt blend mixed with 20% PW by the weight of bitumen is adopted into the asphalt mixture as polymer, it improves the elasticity and strengthens the mixture better than the mixture containing MB.

The latest advancements in road asphalt materials and construction technologies have increased the difficulty for engineers to select the appropriate pavement design solution with consideration of proper timing for maintenance planning. On the other hand, Building Information Modeling (BIM) tools allow practitioners to efficiently store and manage large amounts of data, supporting decision making in road asphalt pavement design and management. The present work focused on the elaboration of a BIM-based maintenance analysis tool for the specific evaluation of several condition indicators and the selection of proper maintenance solutions designed to include alternative materials and advanced recycling technologies. A traditional BIM workflow was integrated with additional user-defined property sets to investigate the need for maintenance at the present date and predict the degradation curve of the condition indicators through the least square interpolation of time series of data. The analysis tool also provided the selection of available pavement alternatives from a library of designed solutions based on their compliance with project-specific constraints (maximum budget, minimum useful life, and availability of secondary raw materials and in-place recycling technologies). The proposed BIM tool aims to be a practical and dynamic way to integrate maintenance planning considerations into road pavement design, encouraging the use of digital tools in the road industry and ultimately supporting a pavement maintenance decision-making process oriented towards a circular economy.

The integration of circular economy principles in the design of road pavements raises the problem of obtaining high-performance asphalt mixtures for reduction of waste and environmental pollution compared to traditional solutions. In this study, the base and binder layers of road asphalt pavements were prepared by using reclaimed asphalt pavement and construction and demolition waste as coarse aggregates, while jet grouting waste and fly ash served as fillers. A leaching test was performed for the marginal materials, after which the engineering performances of the designed asphalt mixtures were investigated through laboratory tests. A life cycle assessment methodology was applied to determine the life cycle impacts of one cubic meter of each asphalt solution. Next, a multi-criteria decision analysis (MCDA) was performed for the solutions suggested for the binder and base layers. Finally, a sensitivity analysis was conducted to identify the most suitable MCDA solutions by varying the weights for a total of 24 different weight configurations. The results of this work revealed that the solutions utilizing jet grouting waste (in particular, the hot asphalt mixture for the binder layer and cold asphalt mixture for the base layer) were preferred to other traditional and alternative solutions in most decision-making scenarios.

The research focuses on Indirect Tensile Strength variation by changing Height and Diameter of bituminous specimens related to AC16 dense-graded binder course with limestone aggregates and neat bitumen at 4.5% following SUPERPAVE procedure. 70 specimens were prepared by using gyratory compactor by fixing hmin/D ratio equals 0.68. A total of 20 specimens whose diameter is 100 mm were prepared and the other 50 specimens were made according to a 150 mm diameter. Then, 30 of 50 specimens with a 150 mm diameter were cut in two different ways: 10 specimens were cut from the centerline and 20 specimens were cut both from the bottom and upper part to obtain a final height falling a range of 35 and 75 mm in compliance with UNIEN12697-23. Then second step refers to H0 hypothesis test as follows: could ITS values resulting from specimens prepared with 150 mm in diameter and cut by using different procedures be equal to ITS values (mean 3.47 MPa) of specimens prepared with 100 mm in diameter and different height (mean height 69.5 mm) with a significance level of 0.05? The results showed that no statistical difference exists between the 100 mm in diameter specimens and 150 mm in diameter specimens that were cut both from the upper and bottom part. However, in the other scenarios statistical differences were founded. Overall, according to the results it can be concluded that 100 mm in diameter specimens can be used for ITS evaluation of AC specimens instead of 150 mm, which consequently resulted in less materials and simplified lab-scale asphalt manufacturing procedures.

The pursuit of sustainability in the field of road asphalt pavements calls for effective decision-making strategies, referring to both the technical and environmental sustainability of the solutions. This study aims to compare the life cycle impacts of several pavement solution alternatives involving, in the binder and base layers, some eco-designed, hot- and cold-produced asphalt mixtures made up of recycled aggregates in substitution for natural filler and commercial recycled polymer pellets for dry mixture modification. The first step focused on the technical and environmental compatibility assessment of the construction and demolition waste (CDW), jet grouting waste (JGW), fly ash (FA), and reclaimed asphalt pavement (RAP). Then, three non-traditional mixtures were designed for the binder layer and three for the base layer and characterized in terms of the stiffness modulus. Asphalt pavement design allowed for the definition of the functional units of Life Cycle Assessment (LCA), which was applied to all of the pavement configurations under analysis in a “from cradle to grave” approach. The LCA results showed that the best performance was reached for the solutions involving a cold, in-place recycled mixture made up of RAP and JGW in the base layer, which lowered all the impact category indicators by 31% on average compared to those of the traditional pavement solution. Further considerations highlighted that the combination of a cold base layer with a hot asphalt mixture made up of CDW or FA in the binder layer also maximized the service life of the pavement solution, providing the best synergistic effect.

Due to the introduction of secondary materials, the asphalt mixtures to be designed and tested in our laboratories are constantly becoming much more complex than traditional asphalt mixtures making difficult to use conventional laboratory procedure and/or predict expected results. This study proposes a comprehensive characterization of asphalt mixture modified with recycled polymer compound by using both wet and dry process proposing adjustments to laboratory mixing and sample compaction procedure. Accordingly, three AC20 Hot Asphalt Mixture (HMA) were designed and their conventional and performance related properties were assessed by looking at a) Indirect Tensile test (ITS) a) moisture damage by Indirect Tensile strength Ratio (ITSR) test; b) cracking by fatigue and Semi-Circular Bending tests and c) rutting both considering Stiffness Modulus (ITSM) and susceptibility to deform by Wheel Tracker. The results demonstrate that the addition of recycled polymer compounds using dry process might lead to the need to adaptation of the laboratory mixing procedure and the proposed mixing and compaction procedures allowed to engineer a superior recycled polymer modified asphalt mixture manufactured through the dry process, since an increment of mechanical related properties, than traditional asphalt solutions, was exhibited by these modified asphalt mixtures in terms of ITS (+32%), ITSM (11% at 10 degrees C, +18% at 20 degrees C, and +34% at 40 degrees C), rutting resistance (rut depth of 1.86 mm vs 1.92 mm) and fatigue life.

The transition from Building Information Modelling (BIM) to Heritage Building Information Modelling (H-BIM) is intended to pursue an adequate knowledge of the artefact that is to be preserved, progressively replacing the traditional methods of the restoration and structural reinforcement projects with new tools for managing both existing information and new interventions. The aim of the paper is to show the application of the H-BIM method to a stone pavement road located in the Archaeological Site of Pompeii. In detail, starting from a Laser Scanner based survey, juxtaposed by coordinated points georeferenced through a total station, points clouds were handled by means of several BIM-based tools to perform the road design process, starting from the digital elevation model (DEM) to the corridor representation. Subsequently, a visual programming application based on Python language was adopted to update corridor information by means of the object property set. As preliminary results, a tool, complete with graphical and non-graphical information, is proposed to be used in conservation, maintenance and restoration project.

As a response to the reduction of environmental pollution and energy consumption in the maintenance or building of a road pavement, this research aims to provide innovative asphalt mixture solutions when designing asphalt base layers containing solidified Jet Grouting Waste (JGW) particles. This involved adding (or not) solutions made up from Reclaimed Asphalt Pavement (RAP) obtained by milling old pavements. The first step focused on a JGW and RAP leaching test before going on to design two non-traditional mixtures: a) a hot asphalt mixture made by replacing 4% of the limestone filler by the total weight of the aggregates with JGW (HMAJ), mixing all of them at a high temperature (160 ÷ 180°C), and b) a cold asphalt mixture made by adding 3% JGW as a filler, 70% RAP (CMRAJ), and 27% limestone by the total weight of the aggregates at low temperatures (40 ÷ 50°C). These innovative mixtures were investigated from the point of view of engineering performance by ascertaining their physico-mechanical features and environmental impact through a Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) test. Further comparison with traditional ones was then carried out using a hot mix asphalt (HMA) and a cold mixture made up from RAP, substituting a portion of the limestone aggregates (CMRA). Such mixtures are subject to special tender specification requirements. Engineering performance assessment showed that, compared with HMA, when JGW is added to both hot and cold mixtures, the ITS is 11% higher for HMAJ and CMRAJ, and cumulative strain is reduced by 17% for HMAJ and 39% for CMRA, while the cold asphalt mixtures (CMRA and CMRAJ) showed greater stiffness levels (on average 50%) at all test temperatures (10, 25, and 40°C). LCA analysis provided significant results for the solutions being compared. Specifically, use of HMAJ as the base layer helped save 65 g/m3 of CO2 compared with HMA, at the same time helping to reduce 29.7 kg of CO2eq./m3 global warming potential. On the other hand, the use of CMRA as the base layer, again compared with the HMA, helped save 45 g/m3 of phosphorous compound emissions in water. In terms of terrestrial ecotoxicity and human non-carcinogenic toxicity, the best performance was obtained using a CMRAJ mixture, whose indicators showed a 60% reduction compared with the HMA solution base layer.

Great efforts have been made in recent years to improve the mechanical properties of asphalt mixtures by replacing conventional mix components with innovative ones or by adding materials such as polymers. Hence, the innovative-sustainable road materials to be investigated through laboratory tests require articulated procedures, the research here presented aims to provide an experimental-methodological approach to analyse the mechanical performance of untraditional hot asphalt mixtures made up using a polymer compound of recycled plastics. Three Asphalt Concrete 20 (AC20) Hot Asphalt Mixtures (HMA) were analysed by measuring base properties (i.e., indirect tensile strength and moisture damage) and advanced features (i.e., stiffness, fatigue, cracking and rutting resistance). As a result, the addition of polymer compound using dry process might lead firstly to change the laboratory mixing procedure than the traditional hot limestone asphalt solutions. The main benefits derived from the adoption of this innovative technology compared to the conventional ones are as follows: a) an improvement of resistance to moisture damage (at 15 °C); b) a suitable stiffness at 10, 20 and 40 °C; c) an increment of the cracking resistance (at 10 °C) and d) a good rutting resistance in terms of rut depth (at 60 °C). .

In the road construction sector, the CO2 emissions that affect global warming are, in most cases, from the asphalt mixtures production activities that are carried out at high temperature (above 160 °C). The research here presented aims to investigate the physical-mechanical properties of asphalt mastics made up using jet grouting waste (JW) as a filler produced through both cold (40–50 °C) and hot mixing process. The first step focused primarily on examining the effects of optimal blending time and curing time of the mastics. The second step focused on the investigation of the rheological properties using a dynamic shear rheometer and carrying out a frequency sweep test at temperatures ranging from 0 to 50 °C with increments of 10 °C, and a multiple stress creep and recovery (MSCR) test under 0.1 and 3.2 kPa load levels at temperatures of 40 and 50 °C. Four cold asphalt mastic solutions were analyzed and then compared to three hot traditional ones, keeping constant, on the one hand, the binder weight and filler over binder weight ratio (0.5), and, on the other hand, changing the type and amount of filler. The compositions of the hot and cold asphalt mastics were as follows: (a) 33% limestone filler (LF) plus 67% bitumen (concerning the cold mixing process, the bitumen content refers to the amount of bitumen into the bitumen emulsion), (b) 33% JW plus 67% bitumen, (c) 16.5% LF plus 16.5% JW and 67% bitumen. The fourth solution designed only for cold asphalt mastic was made up of 33% Portland cement (PC) plus 67% bitumen (referring to the amount of bitumen in the bitumen emulsion). The main findings showed that the optimal performance was achieved at high test temperature by cold and hot asphalt mastics made up adding LF and JW filler, which showed a pronounced elastic behavior. Moreover, the cold asphalt mastic solution made up of LF and JW filler showed better performance than the mastic made up using PC, reaching over 40% increase of the shear modulus and 30% lower non-recoverable creep compliance values at all test temperatures.

Road maintenance operations involve the preservation of the optimal functionality of the pavement. Sometimes the rehabilitation of the pavement layout does not have long lasting effects due to a lack of compliance with the constraints imposed by the technical specifications for the design of materials. The purpose of this paper is to present an efficient BIM tool to help in road maintenance operations through the management of data arising from laboratory testing of road pavement bituminous materials required for the quality control of mixtures. The database associated to the BIM model is a collection of three years of data derived from laboratory investigation on bituminous mixtures’ samples adopted for the maintenance of four main roads located in southern Italy. An algorithm that interacts with the three-dimensional road model has been implemented in order to give road administrations an easy-to-read alert signal for the road pavement structure of the road network that may present the most critical conditions due to poor mechanical and physical features.

The growing necessity to recover and digitally represent heritage infrastructure, has led the experts to face the challenge of choosing different Building Information Modeling (BIM) platforms that will be used to manage the implementation of the semi-automatic design and the reconstruction processes of reverse engineering modelling. The approach to the integrated management of information derived through Heritage-BIM (H-BIM) has been applied to Via del Duomo, one of the main roads in the old town of Naples, Italy. During preliminary inspections of the construction site, it was possible to acquire geometric features and stratigraphic information as well as conducting a photographic survey with 1618 photographs collected. Subsequently, the acquired data were processed, using different BIM-based tools and choosing Dynamo as the optimal one, in order to obtain the 3D mesh and, consequently, converting objects from pure graphic solids into parametric entities by proposing a specific algorithm. Then, a library, with the inclusion of all the possible stone paving package alternatives, including all the structural and stress-deforming characteristics such as Young Modulus (E), Poisson coefficient (n) and Safety factor (SF), was created. In this way, is possible to associate to the generic element, the optimal solution, as pavement package, depending by the different construction context. As preliminary result, a tool is proposed to support the prioritization of any existing Pavement Management System to plan maintenance operations on the road network and also to provide information as an alert system identifying what does not work in maintenance operations.

Purpose. A challenge that the road paving sector is facing concerns the achievement of highly performing bituminous asphalt mixture solutions that do not negatively impact the environment. New environmentally sound asphalt production and recycling technologies are becoming more and more widespread, but their practical application is still hindered by the lack of appropriate decision-making strategies by the administrations. In this study, innovative asphalt mixtures were compared through a novel multi-criterion and sensitivity analysis framework for selecting the best solutions. Methods. A new decision support system has been implemented to choose the best paving alternative between nine asphalt mixtures containing different marginal materials for the binder and base layer of a flexible pavement. The methodological steps taken to reach the definition of the optimal solution concerned (1) mechanical analysis of the designed asphalt mixtures by laboratory investigation, (2) calculation of life cycle assessment indicators using the ReCiPe method, (3) application of the ELECTRE method for the identification of the optimal solution on the basis of both mechanical and environmental performance considering a traditional weight vector, and (4) sensitivity analysis based on 27 different configurations of weight vectors. Results and discussion. The results of this work revealed that the hot asphalt solutions for the binder layer utilizing jet grouting waste and fly ash in substitution of natural fillers reached the best engineering and environmental performance, respectively. Between the asphalt mixtures for the base layer, the cold recycled asphalt containing reclaimed asphalt pavement and jet grouting waste reached, at the same time, the best environmental performance, the minimum value of permanent deformation, and the highest stiffness at 40 °C. The ELECTRE method and sensitivity analysis demonstrated that the purpose of jet grouting for making both hot and cold solutions is the best-compromise solution of environmental and mechanical performance. Conclusions. The proposed framework allows the quantitative assessment of sustainable road asphalt pavement solutions and fits the needs of several engineering fields where a trade-of between the mechanical and environmental performance of multiple construction materials must be established. Future development of this framework could include cost indicators to address the sustainability of the solutions in detail.

As a response to the “end of waste” strategy, this study focuses on an innovative laboratory-methodological approach to carrying out measurements for multi-scale characterization of road pavements construction materials; specifically, the engineering performance of sustainable hot asphalt mastics made up using plastic waste as filler was measured to gain a deeper understanding of the physico-machanical performance of traditional and modern mastics, which seriouly affect the design and durability of the final whole road asphalt pavement. Asphalt mastics are bitumen-based materials that give cohesion to the whole asphalt mixture. They consist of filler (with a passing by mass percentage ranging from 70 to 100 for a sieve size of 0.063 mm) and bitumen. Nine asphalt solutions prepared using three percentages of filler content (10, 15, and 20%) by the total weight of neat bitumen whose weight was kept constant were investigated. Firstly, for plastic waste particles, the maximum melting temperature was examined using Differential Scanning Calorimetry, and the phase transitions were subjected to thermogravimetric analysis. The morphology of all the asphalt solutions was then observed using Scanning Electron Microscope, while the advanced rheological properties were measured by means of a Dynamic Shear Rheometer. Cluster Analysis and Principal Component Analysis were performed to aggregate solutions with similar performance within the same group, and, secondly, to provide a small number of uncorrelated explanatory laboratory variables. Three clusters and three Principle Components were found to be perfectly interconnected to describe asphalt mastics performance.

The use of Building Information Modeling (BIM) is changing the way to perceive, manage and maintain any infrastructural project. The concept of Smart Roads relaunches the transport infrastructure sector through the digital transformation, able to create lean, quality, safer and cheaper infrastructures. The reverse engineering parametric modeling process was applied to “SS18 VAR” rural road, one of the main viabilities in Southern Italy. The case study was developed in according to the following steps: a) creating Digital Terrain Model (DTM); b) modeling horizontal alignment-vertical profiles; c) modeling 3D Corridor; d) modeling Viaducts; e) creating realistic 3D rendering. Bentley Systems software ® were used in this study. The case study provided interesting elements to evaluate the advantages and disadvantages of design practice through BIM style tools, as well as the current state of the methodology itself. DOI: https://doi.org/10.3846/enviro.2020.683

In the age of the Internet-of-Things and Big Data, Building Information Modeling (BIM) is being expanded into sectors for which it was not originally designed, such as the infrastructure sector, and becomes a necessity for the planning and management of smart cities. The digitization of the urban environment, its building and infrastructural heritage and its services is at the center of the concept of smart city, and this appears strongly linked to the use of BIM on an increasingly extended scale as an enabling tool for planning cities that are increasingly intelligent, sustainable, interconnected and above all liveable. In this chapter a creation process for the digitalization of existing roads, as well-known as reverse engineering method, will be shown as follows: a) modeling 3D digital terrain model; b) creating the horizontal alignment, vertical profiles and editing cross-sections; c) modeling the 3D corridor. As a response to long-term development between BIM and road engineering, this chapter will contribute also by offering innovative and practical solutions for integration of road design and pavement analysis, for a better management and optimization of road pavement maintenance.

Secondary raw materials consist of production waste or material resulting from recycling processes, currently in large quantities, which can be injected back into the economic system as new raw materials. This study proposes jet grouting waste (JGW) as filler for hot and cold asphalt mixtures applied as base layers of road pavements and investigates the physical and mechanical properties. JGW is derived from soil consolidation performed during underground roadway tunnel construction. The research compares three asphalt mixtures: (a) hot mixture containing limestone aggregate-filler (HMA), (b) HMA containing JGW (HMAJ), (c) cold recycled asphalt mixture containing JGW (CRAJ). Leaching tests of JGW and reclaimed asphalt pavement (RAP) were conducted, the best configurations of the three mixtures were determined by using the volumetric method through gyratory compaction. Three mastics with filler-to-binder ratios reflecting those of the asphalt mixtures were investigated through delta ring and ball test and frequency sweep test at 0.05% stress by using a dynamic shear rheometer. The morphology of each mixture was further investigated by scanning electron microscopy. The results showed that CRAJ with 28 days of curing time reached the indirect tensile strength (ITS) of HMA (0.73 MPa) within 14 days and, among all studied mixtures, returned the lowest cumulative strain, which was on average 30% lower than that of HMA and HMAJ. The results of this study have shown that the cold alternative mixture, CRAJ, promotes the reuse of two types of waste, RAP and JGW, as it fully meets the reference Italian Technical Standard and ensures good mixture performance in addition to conserving natural resources.

The large amount of plastic waste is currently causing serious pollution to the environment mainly due to long decomposition times and their dispersion. In order to avoid that the pollution by plastics could worsen further, it is trying to encourage companies to recycle existing pallets to create new products. This study investigates the volumetric and mechanical properties of hot bituminous mastics made up using plastic waste materials (PW) as filler. The PW has a maximum size of 2 mm and a melting temperature between 120 and 260 °C. Scanning Electron Microscopy of the PW reveals a mesh structure of elongate elements marked by a much rougher surface than traditional limestone filler (LF). The first step of the study focused primarily on searching for the optimal blending time for the mastics; a total of nine mastics were made up, and no substantial differences were found for any of them on increasing mixing time from 10 up to 60 min in terms of softening point, penetration at 25 °C or dynamic viscosity at 100 °C. Thus, a period of 10 min was selected for mixing all the mastics. The second step focused on the investigation of rheological properties using a dynamic shear rheometer and carrying out a Frequency Sweep (FS) test at temperatures ranging from 0 °C to 50 °C with increments of 10 °C, and a Multiple Stress Creep and Recovery (MSCR) test under 0.1 and 3.2 kPa load levels at temperatures of 40 and 50 °C. The two resulting best solutions are made up of a) 20% PW (HP02), and b) 5% LF plus 15% PW (HLP02), both by the total weight of B5070. Specifically, the shear modulus G* for mastics containing PW showed a distinct increase in G* compared both with B5070 and traditional mastics made up of LF; in particular, the gap becomes more marked moving towards 50 °C, where the best performance of HP02 is obtained. Moving on to illustrate the main results of the MSCR analysis, it was observed that the HP02 and HLP02 solutions showed good recoverable deformation already from the end of the loading phase without waiting for the last step of the unloading cycles at two test temperatures and under two stress levels.