States get $1.2B to build roads, highways with low-carbon materials

Still, Kwon said the federal awards could help to lay the foundation for statewide Buy Clean efforts in a few important ways.

Public agencies need to start compiling emissions and environmental data on the companies and facilities that provide construction materials. States also need to work closely with contractors and local companies to share information on carbon-cutting and novel technologies — something that, say, a mom-and-pop concrete supplier might not be readily familiar with or know how to adopt.

Such steps allow agencies to eventually set mandates or establish maximum emissions limits for cement, steel, or glass purchased for public works projects. To that end, the federal grants can also be used to reimburse agencies or provide incentives for buying road materials with ​“substantially lower levels” of embodied carbon emissions compared to estimated industry averages, according to FHWA.

“For the states that are receiving this extra funding, it’s not like they’re unaware of the climate impact” of materials, Kwon said. ​“The big opportunity here is to empower those agencies that want to do more, but have not received the adequate state funding…to really get a bite out of this apple.” It might also push states to ​“think holistically” and scrutinize whether things like highway expansions or parking lots are truly necessary given the associated emissions, he added.

For its part, Wisconsin’s Department of Transportation (WisDOT) says it plans to use its FHWA grant to launch a pilot program for measuring and tracking the carbon footprint of its transportation projects. The agency will also set sustainability benchmarks for highway construction contracts that involve concrete and asphalt.

“This will allow us to increase the use of low-carbon materials and improve the sustainability of our transportation system without sacrificing performance,” WisDOT Secretary Kristina Boardman said in a press release.

Arizona’s Department of Transportation (ADOT) is set to get $27 million to develop a research program with industry leaders and academic partners that includes deploying cleaner concrete and asphalt mixes. The agency will also establish a technology platform for environmental product declarations — akin to a climate ​“nutrition label” for individual products — that contractors can access.

Doug Nintzel, a spokesman for ADOT, said the initial steps will allow the agency to identify candidate projects for using low-carbon materials, and it’ll work with pavement plant operators and contractors to analyze the pollution reduction, energy efficiency, and quality-of-life benefits related to those projects. ADOT operates an $8 billion, five-year construction program for improvement and expansion projects across nearly 7,000 miles of state highways.

This type of work ​“wouldn’t have happened without the grant,” he said by email.

If these efforts continue during the next Trump administration, the timing would work out well for companies that are striving to bring new facilities online, such as Ecocem. The grants could also dovetail with other federal efforts like the Department of Energy’s Industrial Demonstrations Program — an initiative that, like the FHWA grants, is at risk of being cut back under Trump.

The $6 billion demonstration program, which is funded by the Inflation Reduction Act and bipartisan infrastructure law, aims to transform the nation’s heavy industrial sectors. Earlier this year, six cement projects were selected to receive up to $1.5 billion in awards to demonstrate everything from carbon capture systems to alternative cement chemistries.

Sublime Systems, for example, is slated to get nearly $87 million to build its first commercial-scale plant in Holyoke, Massachusetts. The MIT spinout has developed an electrochemical process for making cement in a way that doesn’t emit carbon or require scorching-hot kilns. Last month, Sublime advanced to phase one of its project, receiving $12.8 million of its federal award for initial project planning in the state — which, as it happens, is up for a nearly $32 million FHWA grant.

Kwon said that, ideally, federally backed projects like Sublime’s will be churning out innovative materials by the time that state transportation agencies are ready to buy more of it, so that public investments can boost both supply and demand in ways that enable the private market to take off.

“It’s building toward a very bright future — if the programs hold,” he said.