CO2 – reduction through congestion avoidance

Although sustainability assessment of infrastructure is not a new topic, its implementation has not yet found its way to road infrastructure in Germany. Currently, various stakeholders have shown interest in applying a system to build more sustainable motorways, but there is not yet a method that allows a fair comparison between paving alternatives. Even if there is not yet an agreed sustainability assessment of infrastructure measures, it is possible to map and monetise individual effects in terms of potential CO2 reduction. A comparison of different upgrading variants of a route is thus possible.

The various possible expansion variants – e.g. faster construction methods, the application of other acceleration measures or intelligent construction site traffic routing (e.g. change-of-direction operation) – can all lead to a reduction in congestion times. Over the entire construction period, enormous savings in pollutants can be achieved and high sustainable effects can be achieved. These effects should be estimated in advance and converted into CO2 savings.

The aim of this project is to demonstrate the CO2 savings potential using the example of a real measure. For this purpose, the traffic effects (congestion times, congestion lengths and the number of vehicles affected) are first to be determined and then, depending on the respective speed, converted into CO2 emissions.

The CBI is working on this project together with Echterhoff and Zeppelin Rental. Scientific support for the project is provided by the Institute of Highway Engineering at RWTH Aachen University. In addition, the Federal Highway Research Institute (BASt) is supporting this project.