An embodied carbon and embodied energy appraisal of a section of Irish motorway constructed in peatlands

In addition to the customary drivers of cost and timely project delivery, embodied energy (EE) and embodied carbon (EC) have come to prominence in recent years as major design considerations in all aspects of large-scale road construction projects. An assessment of road construction necessitating the excavation or alteration of peat should consider the impact on carbon stored within the peat and the greenhouse gases potentially released. A methodology for calculating the environmental impact of constructing roads on peat is presented in this paper. Furthermore, the paper describes the application of this methodology (focusing on EE and EC calculations) to a case study; a section of the M6 motorway in Ireland for which excavate-and-replace was the ground improvement method (Scenario ER). A range of peat-related factors impacting on EE and EC estimates were examined, including materials, transport and …