WASHINGTON (April 23, 2015) — As groups worldwide marked the 45th annual Earth Day, the American Road & Transportation Builders Association (ARTBA) took the opportunity to note that the transportation design and construction industry is a driving force in protecting the environment.
ARTBA members, in partnership with other transportation stakeholders, have developed and use new technologies, innovative project designs and construction techniques, cleaner-burning fluids and intensive recycling of waste materials, the association said.
Since the 1970s, carbon dioxide emissions from motor vehicles have declined 38 percent, carbon monoxide emissions 62 percent and particulate emissions 50 percent, the ARTBA said in an April 22 press release marking Earth Day.
The U.S. construction sector accounts for only 1.7 percent of total greenhouse gas emissions, and the transportation construction industry recycles more than 100 million tons of asphalt and 15 million tons of fly-ash annually, the association said.
“Far from ‘paving over America,' after two centuries of road buildings, the Federal Highway Administration reports public roads occupy less than one-half of one percent of the total U.S. land area,” the ARTBA said.
The ARTBA issued its Earth Day statement the week after it presented its annual Transportation Project Environmental Excellence Awards. The winners were:
• Ames Construction Inc. and the Arizona Department of Transportation for their project, “SR 90 San Pedro River Bridge Replacement;”
• Dewberry and the New Jersey Department of Transportation for their project at the Route 3 Bridge over the Passaic River;
• Hunter Contracting Co. and Gunn Communications for their project at the Greenway Parkway Bridge in the City of Phoenix; and
• Nossaman L.L.P. and the Florida Department of Transportation for their work on the Port Miami Tunnel.