Sustainable roadway construction data from Greenroads certified projects

Data was collected as part of the roadway construction certification offered by Greenroads International according to Greenroads Rating System v1.5. This dataset is the result of data collection efforts for 33 construction projects across the US and abroad. Data was initially collected by Greenroads International as part of its certification process and was later obtained by this dataset's contributors. Projects in pursuit of certification submit supporting documents as evidence for performing a roadway construction practice. For example, tracking the amount of water used in construction to earn points and satisfy a credit in Greenroads. We hypothesize this dataset is unique in that it contains information and statistics on roadway construction projects that are declared sustainable with numeric outcomes to act as performance benchmarks for future projects to follow.

Construction documents were first used to collect data on 12 sustainable performance benchmarks explained in the dataset (see Performance Benchmarks and Project Properties and Landscape Plans files). Sustainable performance benchmarks are established using median values of quantitatively measurable project outcomes. These benchmarks are defined in such a way that any roadway construction project regardless of size or scope may use them as sustainability achievement goals. In that, these performance benchmarks are somehow normalized to an aspect of the project’s size such as its monetary value, length, or area. Except for the source documents used to produce sustainable performance benchmarks, the dataset contains numeric values obtained from digesting several digitally formatted documents or spreadsheets submitted by project teams.

The other major construction document included in this dataset is the pay item list from 30 projects (three projects did not provide this data). Pay item lists contain all the items used in the bidding process of a project and include a short description of each item, a unit of measure, the unit price, and the total price (see Pay Item Lists for LCA and Construction Materials LCA files). Several other construction documents were used to reinforce projects’ pay item lists with enough information for environmental impact assessment. As a result, many other data attributes were added to the pay item list data for each project. These include but are not limited to material’s unit weights, breakdown of material constituents (e.g., how much cement is in a concrete item), transportation distances, etc. Finally, life cycle inventory (LCI) data for the primary construction materials (see Materials LCI file) were collected from publicly available sources and were embedded into the pay item list data for life cycle assessment of materials used to build roadways. We analyzed the resultant dataset to estimate the greenhouse gas emissions and energy consumption of projects.

When necessary, each dataset contains a metadata worksheet that explains data attributes.