Quantitative Measures of Social Sustainability for Pavements: Future Directions for Implementation

Pavement sustainability requires balancing economic, environmental, and social factors. However, the social aspect is often less studied and harder to measure, making its integration into life cycle approaches complex. Recent policies like the Justice40 initiative and the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law have highlighted the necessity for fair infrastructure, emphasizing the importance of concrete social sustainability measures. Current methods like social life cycle assessment (S-LCA) tend to concentrate more on social governance and human well-being, rather than providing a tangible measure of how pavement investments affect individuals. This research summarizes a new method to measure the effects of road conditions on marginalized groups, particularly environmental justice (EJ) communities. It stresses the need to include social factors in assessing pavement sustainability. This approach evaluates the impact of road conditions on both EJ and non-EJ community members and road users. It examines fuel usage during commutes in relation to pavement quality in these areas. Finally, the study discusses future research directions for the methodology’s usage in life cycle frameworks such as LCA and LCCA.