Use of geosynthetics and reduction of environmental impacts in the construction of a new parking apron at Ostend airport in Belgium

Abstract

The theme of microplastics (MP) emissions is one of the focuses of possible environmental concerns when using geosynthetic products in the civil engineering applications. For the construction of a new aircraft parking apron at the Ostend airport in Belgium, a relevant amount of gravel has been substituted with an appropriate woven geotextile for stabilizing the ground. The initial consideration for this decision was essentially due to the important economic and ecological advantages in terms of material savings, time needed for their installation and the overall construction costs. This paper reports the successive analyses showing a very relevant saving in CO2 emissions (more than 77%), which would justify by itself the solution with geosynthetics, if compared with the use of gravel. The specificity and precision of the data available allowed the calculation of a dramatic saving (more than 97%) also in terms of MP emissions, due to the spare of trucks for the transport of materials, preventing also the MP formation connected to the truck’s tires wearing.