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EVALUATION OF THE CARBON FOOTPRINT OF INNOVATIVE WATER MAIN REHABILITATION TECHNOLOGIES VS. OPEN CUT METHODS
Citation:
Matthews, J. C., S. T. Ariaratnam, A. SELVAKUMAR, AND W. Condit. EVALUATION OF THE CARBON FOOTPRINT OF INNOVATIVE WATER MAIN REHABILITATION TECHNOLOGIES VS. OPEN CUT METHODS. Presented at No-Dig 2012, Nashville, TN, March 11 - 15, 2012.
Impact/Purpose:
To inform the public.
Description:
A major benefit of trenchless rehabilitation technologies touted by many practitioners when comparing their products with tradition open cut construction methods is lower carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions. In an attempt to verify these claims, multiple tools have been developed that calculate the environmental impact of traditional open cut construction methods and commonly used trenchless rehabilitation and repair methods. As part of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)’s Aging Water Infrastructure Research Program, one key area of research being pursued is a field demonstration program of innovative rehabilitation technologies. The purpose of the program is to: (1) gather reliable performance and cost data during the application of these technologies at selected sites; and (2) make the capabilities of these technologies better known to the industry. As part of the technology performance evaluation, the carbon footprint of two innovative water main rehabilitation technologies was calculated using the e-Calc tool. The inputs for the calculations came from field demonstration logs, which tracked the durations and required equipment for each activity involved in the project. The paper describes the carbon footprint evaluation of the two innovative trenchless technologies and compares the results against traditional open cut methods for projects of a similar size. The trenchless technologies were found to have significant reduction in carbon footprint.