Stabilising Rural Roads with Waste Streams in Colombia as an Environmental Strategy Based on a Life Cycle Assessment Methodology

Roads with low traffic volume link rural settlements together and connect them urban centres, mobilising goods agricultural products, facilitating the transportation of people. In Colombia, most these roads are in poor conditions, causing social, economic, environmental problems, significantly affecting mobility, security, economic progress country its inhabitants. Therefore, it is essential to implement strategies improve such roads, keeping mind technical, criteria. This article shows results application life cycle assessment—LCA—to sections two low-traffic located different sites Colombia: one Urrao area (Antioquia), centre country; another La Paz (Cesar), northeast country. Each segment was stabilised alternative materials as brick dust, fly ash, sulfonated oil, polymer. The analysis carried out three stages: first manufacture stabiliser; second included preliminary actions that ranged from search for material placement on site; third stabilisation process, which entire stabiliser road. impacts mainly found stabilisers (60% total), oil or polymer, due compounds used during production, before their use stabilisers. impact categories greatest influence were abiotic depletion potential (ADP), global warming (GWP) terrestrial ecotoxicity (TETP). For stage (impact between 40% 99%), ash dust have highest impacts. influenced this were: acidification (AP), freshwater aquatic (FAETP), human toxicity (HTP), marine (MAETP) photochemical ozone creation (POCP).