Study On Environmental Impacts Of Highway Projects During Construction Phase

In recent years, highway projects have developed at an extremely fast speed in China, which brought on increasingly severe environmental problems. It is vital to meet the growing demands for highway transportation while protection to the environment fits the developing country. Highway impacts on the environment take place not only during use but also during construction phase. However, the latter is often neglected in practice. Moreover, ecological environment impacts of highway projects mainly occur in the construction stage. Lack of effective protection may result in ecological disasters. This paper focused on construction phase of highway projects to analyze the environmental impacts incurred. The study will help to avoid, minimize, and mitigate the adverse effects of highway construction on natural environmental resources and further promote sustainable development of highway projects in harmonious with community, economy, and environment. The main results of the research are as follows:Firstly, systematic analysis on environment problems in highway construction was made based on the results of research at home and abroad. It was especially pointed out that the main environment impacts during highway construction are destruction of natural resources and ecological environments.Secondly, the soil erosion during highway construction was studied. The features, the topographic units sensitive to erosion, the dynamic factors and the forecast methods of soil erosion from highway construction were presented. Conservation measures for soil and water during highway construction were given, applying present protection measures of water and soil in engineering to highway practices.Furthermore, a comparative analysis of comprehensive assessment methods on environmental impacts of highway was made. It was pointed out that Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) is suitable to comprehensive assessment of environmental impacts of highway construction considering complicated environmental factors involved. A model of assessment was presented and applied to a practical example to show the applicability of the model.Lastly, the basic principles, assessment essentials and contents of ecological environment impact assessment of highway construction were established. The ecological principles were applied to assess environment impacts of highway construction.