Preventive maintenance (PM) is regarded as the most economical maintenance strategy for asphalt pavement, but the life cycle environmental impacts (LCEI) of different PM techniques have not yet been comprehensively assessed and compared, thus hindering sustainable PM planning. This study aims to comprehensively estimate and compared the LCEI of five PM techniques then propose measures to reduce environmental impacts in PM design by using life cycle assessment (LCA), including fog seal with sand, micro-surfacing, composite seal, ultra-thin asphalt overlay, and thin asphalt overlay. Afterwards, ten kinds of LCEI categories and energy consumption of PM techniques were compared from the LCA phases, and inventory inputs perspectives, respectively. Results show that fog seal with sand and micro-surfacing can lower all LCEI scores by more than 50%. The environmental performance of five PM techniques provided by sensitivity analysis indicated that service life may not create significant impact on LCA results to some extent. Moreover, four PM combination plans were developed and compared for environmental performance, and results show that the PM plan only includes seal coat techniques that can reduce the total LCEI by 7–29% in pavement life. Increasing the frequency of seal coat techniques can make the PM plans more sustainable.

This paper presents a quantitative estimation of anti-icing asphalt mixture snow-melting performance and provides the application guidance for the mixture under study. The regression model of snowmelt quality evolution was established and experimentally verified for different values of snowfall intensity, temperature and blending content of anti-icing filler. The deicing performance of anti-icing asphalt mixtures was evaluated via the impact load tests. The results obtained indicate that the application temperatures of the anti-icing asphalt mixture should exceed −10 °C for moderate or light snow conditions and exceed 0 °C for heavy or blizzard snow conditions. A linear dependence between the snowmelt quality of anti-icing asphalt mixture and time is observed for all tested values of snowfall intensity and temperature. On the other hand, under the same snowfall intensity conditions, a two- to threefold increase of the melting rate with temperature is observed. The available records for the last 30 years in different regions under study concerning variation ranges of three meteorological factors (namely, the extremely minimum temperature, snowfall intensity and the coldest month’s average temperature), the most suitable temperature for application of anti-icing asphalt pavement was identified for each particular region.

The heat-reflective coating for asphalt pavement is a functional layer applied on pavement surfaces to reduce heat storage in the pavement via reflecting sunlight, thus inhibiting pavement temperature rise. The objective of this study was to analyze the environmental thermal effect of the self-developed reflective coating, namely, functionally graded nanocomposite reflective coatings, for asphalt pavement. The thermal effects of heat-reflective coatings were compared and analyzed based on field tests. A heating model of the atmosphere layer near the road surface was established. Moreover, the influence of urban road temperature on the thermal comfort of the human body was analyzed. Results showed that the radiation heat of all heat-reflective coatings decreased around two-thirds, and the convective heat decreased nearly 50% when compared with the control asphalt pavement, and the temperatures of the pavement itself and the atmosphere layer were lowered. Additionally, the heat-reflective coating improved the thermal comfort of the human body. This indicated that the heat-reflective coating reduced ambient temperate and relieved the urban heat island effect (UHI) as well as improved the environmental thermal effect.

Permeable pavement (PP) can be used to decrease urban surface runoff. However, few studies have been conducted to explore the runoff reduction effect of various structures of PP in the carriageway. In this study, several structures of PP used in the carriageway of sponge cities in China were investigated and divided into three types: surface drainage, base course storage and drainage, and fully permeable. Then, the runoff models were developed by Storm Water Management Model to simulate the effect of the three types under various rainfall recurrence periods. Results show that rainfall recurrence period, structure and thickness of the permeable layer were identified as the most influential factors in PP runoff reduction. The surface drainage can reduce total runoff depth and coefficient by more than 14%, and also delay runoff start time and duration by more than 40 minutes. Surface runoff in the base course storage and drainage can only be generated when recurrence period is 50 years. The fully permeable does not generate any runoff under all recurrence periods. Based on simulation results, a series of runoff coefficient values for PP were recommended to help the design and implementation of PP in mitigating urban waterlogging problems.