This study used a cradle-to-cradle Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) approach to evaluate the environmental potentials of urban pavements. For this purpose, the urban road network of the City of Münster (Germany) was selected as the case study, and comprehensive data for several phases were collected. The entire road network is composed of flexible pavements designed according to specific traffic loads and consists of main roads (MRs), main access roads (MARs), and residential roads (RSDTs). Asphalt materials, pavement structures, and maintenance strategies are predefined for each type of road and are referred to as “traditional” herein. Some pavement structures have two possible maintenance strategies, denoted by “A” and “B”, with distinguished periods of intervention. To evaluate the impact of using recycled materials, we considered alternative pavement structures composed of asphalt materials containing a greater amount of reclaimed asphalt pavement (RAP). The study was carried out considering analysis periods of 20, 50, 80, and 100 years and using two indicators: non-renewable cumulative energy demand (nr-CED) and global warming potential (GWP). The results show that the use of higher amounts of RAP can mitigate negative environmental impacts and that certain structures and maintenance strategies potentially enhance the environmental performance of road pavements. This article suggests initiatives that will facilitate the decision-making process of city administrators to achieve more sustainable road pavement constructions and provides an essential dataset inventory to support future environmental assessment studies, particularly for European cities.

This paper applies the Road Network Evaluation Tools (RONET) model to assess the economic impacts of urban pavement maintenance and rehabilitation in the city of Munster, Germany. The city’s road network includes main roads, main access roads, residential roads, and paved areas for pedestrians, cyclists, and parking spaces. The specific traffic loads applied to Munster’s network demand several different pavement materials, structures, and intervention procedures. This study aims to support stakeholders’ decision-making by assessing current expenditures, network conditions, and country-specific data to determine the appropriate financial allocation for recurrent maintenance, periodic maintenance, rehabilitation, and new pavement construction. Six scenarios comprising distinct pavement structures and maintenance strategies are modeled in RONET to perform the analysis. The outcomes include the future deterioration of pavements under different maintenance scenarios, the current and projected asset value of the network, and the total costs (road agency costs + user costs) of the network to society, considering each scenario being applied over a 20-year evaluation period. The RONET model also provides the annual average cost of each maintenance procedure and the additional costs to society while using a budget scenario other than ‘Optimal.’ The results indicate that Munster’s current investment program is in line with the ‘Optimal’ budget scenario proposed by RONET. In addition, the model suggests that performing recurrent and periodic interventions is more cost-effective than neglecting the conservation of pavements for an extended period and endorsing more extensive interventions in the future, such as rehabilitation or reconstruction.