AI enabled scenarios approach is “game changer” for road carbon assessments

International infrastructure consulting firm AECOM has partnered with ORIS, the research spin-off from Swiss building materials group Holcim, to work on the carbon impact assessment for new road designs.

The two firms have assigned a memorandum of understanding and will work together to use artificial intelligence, materials expertise and infrastructure construction experience to assess the carbon emissions of road projects to enable engineers to quickly compare and quantify different design solutions and scenarios.

The MOU follows a successful pilot project in which the two companies collaborated to measure the sustainability performance of the A50 Groby Road corridor project for Leicester City Council.

Funded by the government’s Transforming Cities Fund, this road improvement project will introduce cycle lanes, new and enhanced pedestrian and cycle crossing facilities and safety improvements at a busy junction.

The project pioneered use of a digital platform which generated multiple pavement scenarios that considered factors including carbon emissions, cost estimation and material consumption over the project’s 40-year service life. The outputs provided the client with a full range of carbon and cost calculations to help inform decision making about different materials and design solutions.

Under the new agreement, AECOM and ORIS will gather further insights on road pavement materials and their lifecycle carbon impacts to help clients make data-driven decisions about the sustainability performance of road pavement designs.

Supported by artificial intelligence, the ORIS digital pavement design and material management platform gathers data on locally available construction materials and international and local standards and considers factors like expected traffic and weather conditions to assess the life cycle carbon and cost impacts of different design options. It employs a unique material sourcing database, which helps link projects to locally available and recyclable materials to encourage uptake of circular economy approaches.

AECOM head of pavement design and asset management James Burdall said, “Our work with ORIS on the A50 project allowed us to apply its disruptive technology to a live project and see first-hand the benefits it can bring.

“It’s a game changer for road pavement design that gives our clients a holistic view of the long-term impacts of different design options. There is huge potential to deploy this data-driven solution more widely across the roads, rail and other construction sectors.

"By signing an MOU with ORIS we can offer this approach to more clients, helping them make more informed decisions that will reduce the cost and carbon impacts of their construction projects.”

ORIS originated in Holcim's research centre but has operated as a separate, independent start-up company since 2021. This, it says, allows it to be the intermediary between material suppliers and contractors without generating any advantage for Holcim or third parties from the information.