Assessing the Carbon Cost of Utility Installation via Multi-Utility Tunnels (MUTs)
Proceedings of the Canadian Society of Civil Engineering Annual Conference 2021 (2022)
摘要
Progressive urbanization and the concomitant requirement to develop new cities fuels the need for more sub-surface utility infrastructure. Conventional methods of utility placement, i.e. open-cut trenching techniques, are expensive in terms of their many social, environmental, and indirect economic costs. This necessitates consideration of alternative construction methods such as Multi-Utility Tunnels (MUTs). However, a lack of quantification of their short-term and long-term costs and impacts (i.e. a comprehensive understanding of all the consequences of moving to MUTs) inhibits uptake. Carbon accounting, a globally important consideration, is increasingly adopted within the construction industry and could be used as a convincing argument for why alternatives such as MUTs might be a preferred method of utility placement in cities that are advancing global sustainability agendas. This paper compares carbon cost estimations of open-cut excavations with flush-fitting MUTs. The results show that although flush-fitting MUTs have much greater carbon footprints in the short-term compared to open-cut installation methods, they would save a considerable amount of carbon in the long-term (over their lifetime) by eliminating the need for numerous excavation and reinstatement (E&R) procedures, which are inevitable for repair and maintenance of buried utility services. The research reveals the tipping points in favour of flush-fitting MUTs, in terms of carbon saved, when repetitive E&R works are eradicated, to support their adoption.
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关键词
carbon cost,utility installation,muts,multi-utility
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