Infrastructure consultancy firm Aecom and digital start-up Oris have signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to collaborate on carbon impact assessments for road designs.
Aecom 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.
Both organisations will also gather insights on road pavement materials and their lifecycle carbon impacts to help make data-driven decisions about the sustainability performance of road pavement designs.
Using 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 such as 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 to encourage uptake of circular economy approaches.
The technology will reportedly enable Aecom to quickly measure the sustainability performance of different design scenarios during construction and maintenance.
According to Aecom, with data generated rapidly, using the software can greatly reduce the design process when compared to manually assessing different factors.
The MoU follows a successful pilot project, with Aecom working with Oris to measure the sustainability performance of its designs for the A50 Groby Road Corridor project for Leicester City Council.
Funded by the UK government’s Transforming Cities Fund, the road improvement project will introduce cycle lanes, new and enhanced pedestrian and cycle crossing facilities and safety improvements at a busy junction.
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.
The outputs reportedly provided the the council with a full range of carbon and cost calculations to help inform decision making about different materials and design solutions.
James Burdall, head of pavement design and asset management, Aecom, said: “Our work with Oris on the A50 Groby Road Corridor project allowed us to apply their disruptive technology to a live project and see firsthand 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.”
