81509 - Sustainable Road Infrastructures

Learning outcomes

Students will be introduced to road engineering and learn how these transportation infrastructures are conceived. A range of different externalities will be addressed and evaluated in order to identify the possible sustainable approaches towards the design and construction of less impacting roads. Emerging topics such as territory fragmentation and soil-bio engineering will be imparted as possible multidisciplinary solutions for the novel civil engineer that will know how to evaluate the impact of a road infrastructure on the territory and how to design the interventions to mitigate these effects, for a more sustainable infrastructure.

Course contents

Context Sensitive Design for Roads. Road externalities.

Landscape impact of roads. Soil-bio engineering techniques. Mitigation and green retaining structures. Shielding. Design of a brushlayering slope.

Territorial Fragmentation. Fragmentation indexes. Faunal movements. Defragmentation techniques. Animal crossing. Culverts and Ecoducts.

Sound and Noise. Decibels. Measuring noise. Noise pollution standards. Protection from noise. Low noise pavements. Porous asphalts. Dimensioning acoustic barriers. Non acoustic aspects of barriers. Design of acoustic barriers. Acoustic pavement materials.

Water in roads. Water in the Pavement Surfacing. Water Influence on Mechanical Behaviour of Pavements. Control of Pavement Water and Pollution Prevention. Pollution Mitigation. Best Management Practices and green solutions.

Air pollution from road traffic. Effects on humans. Mitigation techniques. Anti-smog pavements. Low energy bituminous materials.

Readings/Bibliography

The subject is wide and there is no specific book or reading to entirely cover the course.

A number of textbooks and papers will be mentioned during the lectures.

Teaching methods

Lectures will be imparted in the classroom and online with slides and projected documents. 

Assessment methods

Achievements will be assessed by the means of a final exam. This is based on an analytical assessment of the "expected learning outcomes" described above.

In order to properly assess such achievement the examination is composed of different sections and it is normally oral. When possible, the student will be allowed to write part of the answers and formulas to ease the assessment process. 

The oral session, consists of a technical conversation on three different topics among the course ones.

Higher grades will be awarded to students who demonstrate an organic understanding of the subject, a high ability for critical application, and a clear and concise presentation of the contents.

To obtain a passing grade, students are required to at least demonstrate a knowledge of the key concepts of the subject, some ability for critical application, and a comprehensible use of technical language.

Students with learning disorders and\or temporary or permanent disabilities: please, contact the office responsible (https://site.unibo.it/studenti-con-disabilita-e-dsa/en/for-students ) as soon as possible so that they can propose acceptable adjustments. The request for adaptation must be submitted in advance (15 days before the exam date) to the lecturer, who will assess the appropriateness of the adjustments, taking into account the teaching objectives.

Teaching tools

Students can download the lecture notes from the Virtuale webpage.

These are colour slides with specific notes and comments.

Slides are updated each year.

Office hours

See the website of Cesare Sangiorgi