Using schedule simulation approaches to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in highway construction project

Abstract

Scheduling approaches used in construction projects like Critical Path Method (CPM) and Linear Scheduling Method (LSM) are different ways of expressing resource, spatial and temporal constraints. Given the nature of the project, one or the other approaches may prove to be more suitable in representing project characteristics crucial to managing the schedule. This paper argues that different scheduling approaches have different impacts on project greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions regardless of the construction strategies used. The argument is investigated by applying two construction strategies to complete three as-planned highway construction schedules on a simulation platform. As-planned schedules are created from CPM, LSM, and an actual schedule. The quantities of GHG emissions were calculated and compared. The paper identified effective scheduling approaches in reducing GHG emissions. This research supports methods to reduce construction GHG emissions considering the trade-offs between cost, duration, and GHG emissions during the project planning and construction phase.