Master of Technology Management Plan II Graduate Projects

Date of Award

Spring 2012

Document Type

Dissertation/Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Technology Management-Construction Management

First Advisor

Alan Atalah

Second Advisor

Wilfred Roudebush

Abstract

This study focuses on the environmental aspect of the underground utility construction methods namely open-cut and pipe-bursting. The research is aimed at determining the CO2 emission due to the use of construction machinery as well as the excess CO2 emission due to the obstruction to traffic during the construction process. A Gravity sewer project in Bowling Green, OH was used as a case study. Open- cut method was implemented on this project and for the purpose of this research the pipe-bursting method was simulated. A 5100 feet long, 8 inches diameter pipeline was considered at a depth of 10 feet and all the calculations were based on these measurements for both these methods. All the real life data was collected from the construction project and the site & management factors as well as the load factors were applied in order to come up with practical CO2 emission calculations for construction machinery. Various traffic control plans were taken into consideration and pre-established formulas were applied to the traffic data in order to derive the excess CO2 emission for the traffic. The outcome of this study indicated that pipe-bursting results in 68% less CO2 emission due to traffic disruption and 73.4% less CO2 emission due to use of construction machinery as compared to the open-cut method. The total reduced CO2 by implementation of pipe-bursting method was found to be 72.6%. Thus, it was concluded that this drastic reduction in the CO2 emission due to pipe-bursting method was mainly because of lesser excavation, shorter job duration and lesser traffic disruption.

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