Infrastructure consultancy firm AECOM has signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with digital start-up ORIS to collaborate on carbon impact assessments for road designs.
AECOM said the two organisations will pursue joint opportunities for their combined approach, and that it will use ORIS software to assess the carbon emissions of road projects to enable its engineers to quickly compare and quantify different design solutions and scenarios.
It added that under the MOU, AECOM and ORIS will also gather further insights on pavement materials and their lifecycle carbon impacts to help clients make data-driven decisions about the sustainability performance of road pavement designs.
The ORIS Digital Pavement Design and Material Management Platform, which AECOM said is supported by artificial intelligence, 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 material sourcing database, which helps link projects to locally available and recyclable materials.
James Burdall, head of pavement design and asset management, AECOM, described the approach as ‘a game changer for road pavement design that gives our clients a holistic view of the long-term impacts of different design options’.
He said: ‘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.'
Nicolas Miravalls, CEO of ORIS, said: ‘The ORIS team is proud and committed to accompany AECOM in their ambition to follow a disruptive approach to road structure design optimisation and carbon life cycle calculations.’
AECOM said the MOU follows a successful pilot project where it worked with ORIS to measure the sustainability performance of its designs for the A50 Groby Road Corridor project (pictured) for Leicester City Council.
The digital platform generated multiple pavement scenarios that considered factors including carbon emissions, cost estimation and material consumption over the project’s 40-year service life.
