A Framework for Assessment of Sustainability and Resilience in Subgrade Stabilization for a High-Volume Road

Abstract

Sustainability studies for civil infrastructure have primarily focused on methods and tools for quantifying resource consumption, environmental consequences, and socio-economic implications of a project. On the other hand, resilience analyses are based on the attributes of robustness and adaptiveness of the system. This study presents a multi-criteria analysis-based framework for a combined evaluation of sustainability and resilience of a civil infrastructure. The individual metrics (impact categories) are quantified, and a combined sustainability and resilience index ICSR is introduced to assess the sustainability and resilience of a high-volume road construction project in Texas. The pavement was constructed on sulfate-rich expansive clays, and the subgrade was stabilized with materials such as lime and fly ash. The framework offers flexibility to the user in attaching weights to an impact category based on its relative priority in the analysis. A pictographic representation of both sustainability and resilience elements could be effected through this framework.