Heljedal M, P F (2013) Sustainable intermodal transportation of prefabricated construction materials. In: Smith, S D and Ahiaga-Dagbui, D D (eds.) Proceedings of 29th Annual ARCOM Conference, 2-4 September 2013, Reading, UK.
Abstract
Non-sustainable transportation is a great part of the stress that human activities put on the environment. Transportation of construction material are today performed all but exclusively by road, a mode that is cheap and fast, but at the same time heavy on emissions. In light of this, the effects of a modal change from road to combined road/rail transportation are studied from the viewpoint of a case company producing prefabricated concrete units. The study includes economic and environmental as well as operational effects. A case study is performed at the producing company by looking at actual invoices and delivery orders for the present mode of transportations. To assess the present operations, an intermodal alternative was created and studied. The comparison clearly shows that the environmental impact of the intermodal transportation is only a fraction of that of the road transportation. However, intermodal transportation is less cost efficient, flexible and reliable. The results imply the construction industry as a whole could lessen its environmental impact by employing intermodal transportation, however, without changes in regulations and policies to negate the economic disadvantage, intermodal transportation in its current state will not be a viable option for the studied company.
| Item Type: | Conference Paper (Paper) |
|---|---|
| Uncontrolled Keywords: | environment; greenhouse gas; intermodal transportation; prefabrication; sustainability |
| Index terms: | environmental impact, regulation, construction material, greenhouse gas, human activity, option, construction industry, prefabrication, case study |
| Subjects: | sociology, decision analysis, building construction, political science, industry analysis, building materials, data collection methods, climate science, environmental impact |
| Topics: | Engineering Principles, Research Practice, Sustainability, Governance, Construction Technology, Risk Management |
| Descriptive scope: | 4 PCTE |
N.B. Descriptive scope is a count of how many of the five facets of empirical research are indicated by the words used in title, abstract and keywords. It is not intended as a judgement on the research; merely a count of the kind of word we would expect to indicate Phenomenon, Concepts, Theoretical framing, Empirical techniques, Analytical techniques. If all five are present, then a code of “5 PCTEA” will indicate this. If you feel the coding for this record is questionable, we welcome discussion around the terms we matched or the way we categorized them. The facet you would expect may not be coded, or a facet may be coded inappropriately. This can also bear on a larger question, of which facets should be treated as defining in construction management research. Please get in touch, and we will look at it. More details here