A green highway is a roadway constructed per a relatively new concept for roadway design that integrates

transportation Transport (in British English) or transportation (in American English) is the intentional Motion, movement of humans, animals, and cargo, goods from one location to another. Mode of transport, Modes of transport include aviation, air, land tr ...

functionality and

ecological sustainability Sustainability is a social goal for people to co-exist on Earth over a long period of time. Definitions of this term are disputed and have varied with literature, context, and time. Sustainability usually has three dimensions (or pillars): env ...

. An environmental approach is used throughout the planning, design, and the construction. The result is a highway that will benefit transportation, the

ecosystem An ecosystem (or ecological system) is a system formed by Organism, organisms in interaction with their Biophysical environment, environment. The Biotic material, biotic and abiotic components are linked together through nutrient cycles and en ...

, urban growth, public health and surrounding communities.

Research

Green Highways Partnership (GHP) is an alliance of

Federal Highway Administration The Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) is a division of the United States Department of Transportation that specializes in highway transportation. The agency's major activities are grouped into two programs, the Federal-aid Highway Program a ...

(FHWA), U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), other Federal agencies, State transportation and environmental agencies, industry, trade associations, members of academia, and contractors to encourage environmentally friendly road building. Another effort to create greener highways is a research program named Asphalt Research Consortium (ACR) created by collaboration of FHWA, private institutions, and several universities. The program studies potential ways to make asphalt more environmentally sustainable, which will result in improved traffic safety and reduced life-cycle cost. A 2019 research project from the Cooperative Research Program of the

Transportation Research Board The Transportation Research Board (TRB) is a division of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. TRB's mission is to mobilize expertise, experience, and knowledge to anticipate and solve complex transportation-related challe ...

determined the state-of-practice in highway construction sustainability and produced a guidebook for practitioners as an aid in communicating, implementing, and evaluating sustainable highway construction.

Benefits

When built to standards of the concept, green highways have invaluable benefits to environment. Since they are built with permeable materials that provide superior

watershed Watershed may refer to: Hydrology * Drainage divide, the line that separates neighbouring drainage basins * Drainage basin, an area of land where surface water converges (North American usage) Music * Watershed Music Festival, an annual country ...

-driven

stormwater Stormwater, also written storm water, is water that originates from precipitation (storm), including heavy rain and meltwater from hail and snow. Stormwater can soak into the soil ( infiltrate) and become groundwater, be stored on depressed lan ...

management, leaching of

metal A metal () is a material that, when polished or fractured, shows a lustrous appearance, and conducts electrical resistivity and conductivity, electricity and thermal conductivity, heat relatively well. These properties are all associated wit ...

s and

toxin A toxin is a naturally occurring poison produced by metabolic activities of living cells or organisms. They occur especially as proteins, often conjugated. The term was first used by organic chemist Ludwig Brieger (1849–1919), derived ...

s into

stream A stream is a continuous body of water, body of surface water Current (stream), flowing within the stream bed, bed and bank (geography), banks of a channel (geography), channel. Depending on its location or certain characteristics, a strea ...

s and

river A river is a natural stream of fresh water that flows on land or inside Subterranean river, caves towards another body of water at a lower elevation, such as an ocean, lake, or another river. A river may run dry before reaching the end of ...

s is prevented.

Landfill A landfill is a site for the disposal of waste materials. It is the oldest and most common form of waste disposal, although the systematic burial of waste with daily, intermediate and final covers only began in the 1940s. In the past, waste was ...

usage is favorably reduced as construction involves

recycled Recycling is the process of converting waste materials into new materials and objects. This concept often includes the recovery of energy from waste materials. The recyclability of a material depends on its ability to reacquire the propert ...

materials. In addition, by using cutting-edge technologies in design, critical

habitat In ecology, habitat refers to the array of resources, biotic factors that are present in an area, such as to support the survival and reproduction of a particular species. A species' habitat can be seen as the physical manifestation of its ...

s and ecosystems are protected from the encroachment of highway

infrastructure Infrastructure is the set of facilities and systems that serve a country, city, or other area, and encompasses the services and facilities necessary for its economy, households and firms to function. Infrastructure is composed of public and pri ...

Characteristics

To develop a green highway, a project can follow guidelines provided below by GHP: * Provide a net increase in environmental functions and values of a

. * Exceed minimum standards set by environmental laws and regulations. * Identify and protect historic and cultural landmarks. * Map all

resources ''Resource'' refers to all the materials available in our environment which are Technology, technologically accessible, Economics, economically feasible and Culture, culturally Sustainability, sustainable and help us to satisfy our needs and want ...

in the area in order to avoid, identify, and protect critical resource areas. * Use innovative, natural methods to reduce imperviousness, and cleanse all runoff within the project area. * Maximize use of existing transportation infrastructure, providing multi-modal transportation opportunities, and promoting

ride-sharing Carpooling is the sharing of car journeys so that more than one person travels in a car, and prevents the need for others to have to drive to a location themselves. Carpooling is considered a Demand-Responsive Transport (DRT) service. By hav ...

public transportation Public transport (also known as public transit, mass transit, or simply transit) are forms of transport available to the general public. It typically uses a fixed schedule, route and charges a fixed fare. There is no rigid definition of whi ...

. * Use recycled materials to eliminate

waste Waste are unwanted or unusable materials. Waste is any substance discarded after primary use, or is worthless, defective and of no use. A by-product, by contrast is a joint product of relatively minor Value (economics), economic value. A wast ...

and reduce the

energy Energy () is the physical quantity, quantitative physical property, property that is transferred to a physical body, body or to a physical system, recognizable in the performance of Work (thermodynamics), work and in the form of heat and l ...

required to build the highway. * Link regional transportation plans with local land use partnerships. * Control populations of

invasive species An invasive species is an introduced species that harms its new environment. Invasive species adversely affect habitats and bioregions, causing ecological, environmental, and/or economic damage. The term can also be used for native spec ...

, and promoting the growth of

native species In biogeography, a native species is indigenous to a given region or ecosystem if its presence in that region is the result of only local natural evolution (though often popularised as "with no human intervention") during history. The term is equi ...

. * Incorporate post project monitoring to ensure environmental results. * Protect the

hydrology Hydrology () is the scientific study of the movement, distribution, and management of water on Earth and other planets, including the water cycle, water resources, and drainage basin sustainability. A practitioner of hydrology is called a hydro ...

wetlands A wetland is a distinct semi-aquatic ecosystem whose groundcovers are flooded or saturated in water, either permanently, for years or decades, or only seasonally. Flooding results in oxygen-poor ( anoxic) processes taking place, especially ...

and streams channels through restoration of natural

drainage Drainage is the natural or artificial removal of a surface's water and sub-surface water from an area with excess water. The internal drainage of most agricultural soils can prevent severe waterlogging (anaerobic conditions that harm root gro ...

paths. * Result in a suite of targeted environmental outcomes based upon local environmental needs. * Reduce disruptions to ecological processes by promoting

wildlife corridor A wildlife corridor, also known as a habitat corridor, or green corridor, is a designated area habitat (ecology), that connects wildlife populations that have been separated by human activities or structures, such as development, roads, or land ...

s and passages in areas identified through

wildlife conservation Wildlife conservation refers to the practice of protecting wild species and their habitats in order to maintain healthy wildlife species or populations and to restore, protect or enhance natural ecosystems. Major threats to wildlife include habita ...

plans. * Encourage smart growth by integrating and guiding future growth and capacity building with ecological constraints. Other parameters associated with green highways and green roads include: * Trees saplings planted near the roads includes varied species and may follow methods of

polyculture In agriculture, polyculture is the practice of growing more than one crop species together in the same place at the same time, in contrast to monoculture, which had become the dominant approach in developed countries by 1950. Traditional example ...

. Saplings are selected considering various reasons such as conservation need, aesthetics, maintenance costs, spiritual and religious association, mythological reasons, heritage value, medicinal value, tolerance capacity, nativity to the region, association with other species, canopy spread, safety to the drivers, benefit to the community, benefit to the natural environment, etc. * Creating micro-forests and

urban forest Urban means "related to a city". In that sense, the term may refer to: * Urban area, geographical area distinct from rural areas * Urban culture, the culture of towns and cities Urban may also refer to: General * Urban (name), a list of peop ...

s near the highways and roads. * Preference for planting tree saplings in multiple rows or lines, towards developing tree-zones or tree groves near the roads. * Creation, maintenance and protection of water-bodies near the roads (ponds, streams, rivers, wells etc.). * Passenger waiting areas being environmentally-friendly (made from biodegradable, recycled, recyclable, renewable resources).

Technology

Green highway construction can incorporate several technical elements including, but not limited to: *

Bioretention Swales Bioretention is the process in which contaminants and sedimentation are removed from stormwater runoff. The main objective of the bioretention cell is to attenuate peak runoff as well as to remove stormwater runoff pollutants. Construction of ...

* Porous Pavements * Environmentally Friendly concrete * Forest Buffer * Restored and Stormwater Wetlands *

Stream Restoration Stream restoration or river restoration, also sometimes referred to as river reclamation, is work conducted to improve the environmental health of a river or stream, in support of biodiversity, recreation, flood management and/or landscape develop ...

Wildlife crossing Wildlife crossings are structures that allow animals to cross human-made barriers safely. Wildlife crossings may include underpass tunnels or wildlife tunnels, viaducts, and overpasses or green bridges (mainly for large or herd-type animals ...

* Soil amendments *

Stormwater Management Stormwater, also written storm water, is water that originates from precipitation (storm), including heavy rain and meltwater from hail and snow. Stormwater can soak into the soil (infiltration (hydrology), infiltrate) and become groundwater, be ...

with Pervious Concrete Pavement

Examples

U.S. Highway 301 Waldorf Transportation Improvements project is working towards becoming the nation’s first truly green highway by incorporating the principles of the Green Highways Partnership and

green infrastructure Green infrastructure or blue-green infrastructure refers to a network that provides the “ingredients” for solving urban and climatic challenges by building with nature.Hiltrud Pötz & Pierre Bleuze (2011). Urban green-blue grids for sustain ...

in its earliest planning stages. The project encompasses an area from MD 5 and US 301 interchange in Prince George's County to the US 301 intersection with Washington Avenue and Turkey Hill Road in Charles County. It aims to improve the local traffic operation along US 301 while promoting and securing environmental stewardship. Anacostia Watershed Protection: This pilot competition is designed to support the protection and restoration of urban water resources through a holistic watershed approach to water quality management. Funding will be directed to environmentally sound, watershed projects that stress a wide range of water quality improvement strategies and targets.

References

External links

US 301 Waldorf Area Transportation Improvements Project website

Asphalt Research Consortium
{{DEFAULTSORT:Green Highway Environmental technology Road infrastructure Highways