Life-cycle assessment (LCA) of civil infrastructure is becoming a common practice adopted by planners and developers. Particularly, it is being relied upon by the transportation agencies to make decisions related to the expenditure on new bridge construction projects as well as for bridge maintenance, rehabilitation, and replacement. LCA involves comparative study of different alternatives of bridge construction essentially providing the similar functionality/service (often referred to as a “functional unit”) with varied bridge configurations. Within LCA, consideration is given towards service-life performance, durability, life-cycle costs involved, and overall economics.? However, external effects on the environment and sustainability have yet to be considered in common practice.? Such considerations fall with the context of broader Life-cycle Assessments (LCAs) which include a comprehensive set of economic, social, and environmental indicators. Due to a lack of data sets, modeling techniques, and understanding of social and environmental metrics, the completion of academic LCAs that measure all three metric groups (social, environmental, and economic) have been limited.

Currently, efforts are being made towards innovating alternative materials for bridges that will be durable, cost-effective and more environmental friendly. In this context, fiber reinforced polymers (FRP) have great potential in civil engineering structures by virtue of their longevity and lightweight characteristics. However, the construction of new FRP reinforced bridges has not been undertaken widely in the United States. One crucial concern for planners, policymakers, and decision makers has been the higher initial costs involved in construction of the FRP reinforced bridges as compared to the conventional bridges with steel reinforcement.? This is compounded by the lack of full cost accounting data (such as environmental and social externalities) associated with new materials and technologies.

For taxpayers to realize the benefits derived from the investments made in bridge infrastructure, these systems need to be critically assessed by conducting a suitable life-cycle assessment. Such assessment made while the infrastructure development projects are being planned not only weighs economic benefits but also its possible effects on the surrounding environment and society. With this aim in mind, a two-day long workshop is proposed to be organized by the Center for Innovative Materials Research (CIMR) in Lawrence Technological University in conjunction with the Stanford University Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering. As large scale efforts are currently being made in Japan towards developing sustainable infrastructure, it is planned to have participation from Japanese and US researchers working towards same goal. Participation of researchers from various international laboratories in Japan and the US engaged in the research and methodology of LCA for civil engineering structures and infrastructure projects is anticipated in the workshop. The bilateral exchange of ideas will be facilitated through the medium of the proposed workshop.

The goal behind the proposed workshop is to convene a meeting of researchers and thinkers mainly from the two nations, Japan and US, to confer on the LCA of the use of FRP in infrastructure of bridges in order to layout a prospective course for future trends, particularly in bridge engineering and construction technology, and generally in the process of infrastructure development. Both the participating countries are witnessing tremendous rate of infrastructure growth and rapid technological advancements. To that effect, the following will be the focus of the proposed US-Japan workshop.

Life-Cycle Assessment of Bridges
The investments made in developing the nation’s transportation infrastructure, such as through bridge construction, are evaluated in terms of long-term benefits to the society/taxpayers, without posing adverse environmental effects. This reflects the notion of sustainability put forth by the Bundtland Commission (UN World Commission on Environment and Development) in 1987 as “that which meets the needs of the current generation with compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.” Such assessment is made for the entire duration of the lives of the current bridges that are repaired or rehabilitated using suitable techniques, and new bridges planned for the future. Upon evaluating the economic impacts/benefits and concurrently addressing environmentally and socially related issues, decisions can be made about the choice of materials to be used in bridge construction.  

Socioeconomic, Environmental, and Sustainability Paradigm
Bridges are lifeline structures constituting an integral part of the nation’s highway network. In addition to meeting their functional requirement as a basic component of transportation infrastructure, in the future bridges will be expected to fill a larger role with the sustainable built environment. Along with providing safe passage, bridges and the transportation networks they form must meet higher design requirements such that they may limit traffic congestion, minimize transit time, conserve fuel for the motoring public, and limit their own environmental footprint. These performance measures begin to address a set of comprehensive social (minimizing road rage and time away from family), environmental (minimizing greenhouse gas emissions from cars stuck in traffic), and economic sustainability metrics (minimizing user costs and lost production time). A material or structure that sustains a longer life in harsh weather conditions, proves economical over its service lifespan, and has little or no adverse environmental and social externalities would be the most suitable choice, through which taxpayer money is utilized in an effective manner for sustainable infrastructure development.  

Fiber Reinforcement Polymers in Bridges
One such promising bridge construction material that is durable and arguably economical over its service life is FRP used in concrete. Because of their superior material properties over the conventional steel reinforcement, the FRPs are being extensively used worldwide in bridge repairs and rehabilitation projects. Moreover, various FRP shapes are finding a place in bridge superstructure construction practice. When FRPs are used for prestressing of structures, it further adds to its life and economy respectively by reducing the development of cracks and utilizing the high-strengths of constituent materials fully. Therefore, new generation bridges are projected to have been utilizing higher strengths and engineered materials that would result in aesthetically appealing slender bridge structures, still economically affordable, and enduring. Deliberating on socioeconomic, environmental, and sustainability aspects of the use of FRPs, hence will help understand their suitability and effectiveness in future bridge constructions, either new or rehabilitation projects.