Mobilise developed a methodological approach to derive construction-related truck kilometers on city level based on algorithmic and geospatial analyses of GPS data. Results show that large urban construction sites account for 26.4% of total HGV traffic in Brussels.
Methodologies used so far make abstraction of traveled vehicle-kilometers (vkm), hence inadequately determining the true environmental impact of off-site CL activities. The lack of baseline assessments makes developing sector-specific transport policies difficult. In Belgium, using On-Board Units shows promising results in answering this research gap. This paper presents a methodological approach to derive CL vkm on vehicle and trip level, based on algorithmic (R) and geospatial (GIS) analyses of GPS data from all HGV driving in or through the territory of Belgium, which serves as input to conduct a city-wide environmental impact assessment in terms of external costs.
The proposed methodology was deployed on 66 large construction sites in the Brussels-Capital Region (BCR) active between 2020-2022 during the month of September 2021. Subsequently, results were translated into monetary terms to capture the generated environmental and mobility impacts. With its 968,041.96 monthly driven vkm, CL represents 26.40% of total HGV traffic in the BCR. This share generates €45,631.85 of external costs per workday, totaling €1,003,900.61 per month.
Particular attention is paid to local air pollution (NOx, PM) and global emitted pollutants (GHG; CO2-eq.), which account for €55,123 and €80,410 per month of damage costs, respectively. To mitigate these damage costs and meet environmental goals, governments should pay increasing attention to urban construction transport by stimulating CL setups or developing emission-free public procurement procedures. This study’s results can serve as a baseline for future policy recommendations and scenario evaluations.