Marzouk, M and Ashmawy, M M (2021) Assessment of highways concrete and asphalt pavements using superiority inferiority ranking technique. Construction Innovation, 21(2), pp. 259-278. ISSN 1471-4175
Abstract
Highways are one of the most critical infrastructure projects with strategic impact on the countries' development. Asphalt has been historically the main pavement material used in all highway projects, especially in Egypt. However, with the booming in concrete technology in the past two decades, concrete has become a strong rival to asphalt, especially in highway applications. Several factors impact the decision-making criteria for any highway, which differ according to the priorities and requirements of each decision-maker and the nature of the project. This research focuses on studying and analyzing the different factors that impact the decision for selecting the material type for highways in Egypt's pavement construction industry. The outputs of the analysis are then incorporated into a multi-decision-making tool to assess the optimum solution as per the priorities of the decision-maker. A holistic framework is developed to compare asphalt and concrete pavements solutions considering; initial cost, maintenance cost on the life cycle, construction duration, embodied energy and fuel consumption. The data collection on local highways was performed through interviewing and surveying experts in the consulting, contracting and building materials fields (total of 15 respondents). A multi-decision-making tool developed using the superiority and inferiority ranking method for selecting the best alternate. To illustrate the practicality of the proposed framework, a case study for assessment and validation has been done on Sokhna–Quarries highway in Egypt. The framework results reveal that despite a lower initial cost and faster construction of asphalt, concrete pavement is more cost-efficient on the lifecycle time. The multi-decision-making model indicates that concrete is a better alternate for highway applications given the cost, time and energy factors considered. The proposed model takes into consideration the important parameters in selecting the type of pavement to be constructed considering two alternates asphalt and concrete.
| Item Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Uncontrolled Keywords: | asphalt highways; concrete highways; infrastructure; lifecycle cost analysis; multi-criteria decision-making |
| Index terms: | life cycle, decision-making, building material, asphalt highway, pavement construction, highway construction, validation, embodied energy, fuel consumption, case study, maintenance cost, cost analysis, multi-criteria decision-making, critical infrastructure, surveying, concrete highway, asphalt pavement, Egypt, lifecycle, duration, concrete technology |
| Subjects: | infrastructure engineering, financial management, Geography, project controls, building materials, data collection methods, decision analysis, infrastructure and transport systems, civil engineering, value management, project delivery, professional development, financial and cost management, health monitoring assessment and metrics, energy systems |
| Topics: | Project Management, Time Control, Information Management, Health and Safety, Cost Management, Geographical Context, Research Practice, Design Practice, Engineering Principles, Risk Management, Sustainability, Business Strategy |
| Descriptive scope: | 3 PCE |
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