Greening procurement of infrastructure construction: optimising mass-haul operations to reduce greenhouse gas emissions

The construction industry has made significant progress towards construction processes for sustainable buildings through programs and guidelines such as ISO 14000 and LEED. However, the lack of research into greenhouse gas production resulting from processes during construction constitutes a significant gap in our knowledge. Linear infrastructure construction processes were examined to find a major contributor of greenhouse gas emissions. One micro-process, earthworks materials handling (commonly known as mass-haul), has been identified. The challenge is to define and develop sustainability measures, methodologies and tools for mass-haul that takes place during linear infrastructure construction. ICT tools and construction management programs such as DynaRoad do provide continuing updates of construction progress. These data can be utilised in mathematical optimisation techniques focusing on scheduling activities, objects or locations of mass haul. The expected outcome of the research is proof of concept for the utilisation of optimisation and modelling techniques to devise measurement tools and methodologies for greenhouse gas emissions of mass-haul during infrastructure construction. Verification of the concept is expected to be through the application of e-government procurement protocols based on total mass-haul activities for tendered projects. These can then be assessed against environmental factors linked to greenhouse gas emission rates in other domains, thus extending sustainability practices during infrastructure construction.