Licentiatavhandling Luleå : Luleå University of Technology, 2017

On- and off-site construction activities during transport infrastructure projects are major contributors to greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. The Swedish Transport Administration (STA) has stated the goal of gradually reducing its emissions from transport infrastructure projects to zero by 2050. However, current life cycle assessment (LCA)-based approaches for estimating GHG emissions are static and location-independent, and thus do not account for the dynamics of construction. Some project-based methods have been proposed, but there is little guidance and insight available to facilitate their implementation in real projects during project planning. This thesis aims to explore how CO2 emissions can be reduced during different stages of the planning process for transport infrastructure. The analysis focuses on emissions during project execution, i.e. on- and off-site construction activities including material production, and transportation. An exploratory research approach is used to develop practical CO2 reduction methods that could be implemented during the feasibility studies, the design stage, and the procurement stage of the planning process. These methods and models are developed and demonstrated in case studies. This is a similar to the prototyping method in which early drafts of a new system are developed and tested to enable further development into a finalized system. The findings show that considerable CO2 reductions can be achieved if project alternatives are evaluated systematically during the planning process. Although most major decisions are made during the early stages of the planning process, later stages should not be ignored because these offer opportunities to include more definitive project data and thereby improve the certainty of the assessments.