81509 - Sustainable Road Infrastructures

Academic Year 2021/2022

Learning outcomes

A successful learner from this course 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. A specific part of the course will deal with Water in road structures.

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. Faunal passageways. Ducts 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. The exam might be online due to possible restrictions.

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.

Teaching tools

Students can download the lacture notes from the IOL webpage.

These are color .ppt slides with specific notes and comments.

Slides are updated each year.

Office hours

See the website of Cesare Sangiorgi

SDGs

Clean water and sanitation Industry, innovation and infrastructure Sustainable cities Climate Action

This teaching activity contributes to the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals of the UN 2030 Agenda.