Growing concerns about the impacts of asphalt work emissions have increased the need for detailed source characterization. Here, we investigated emissions generated during the milling of old asphalt and paving of new road surfaces. We combined real-time and off-line measurements using local monitoring and mobile monitoring mounted on road construction equipment to provide point-source information on particle emissions and selected semivolatile species. Overall, analysis of the asphalt plume showed that individual work processes have unique profiles of particulate mass concentration, size distribution, and chemical composition. Plumes from milling and sweeping are dominated by coarse dust particles and vehicle exhaust soot. Fine particles emitted during milling, paving, and compaction were found to be elevated in organic compounds (OCs), particularly polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), alkylated PAHs (Alk-PAHs), and dibenzothiophenes (DBTs), compared to the background. Some OCs were present in the bitumen and were released during paving. The strongest near-source emissions were observed during paving, where vehicle-bound samples showed substantially higher OC, PAH, Alk-PAH, and DBT concentrations than localized monitoring, emphasizing the importance of sampling close to active asphalt handling. We found that certain classes were markers of specific work activities. The enrichment of Alk-PAHs and DBTs suggested that these may serve as useful markers for bitumen-derived emissions.
Polat et al. (Sat,) studied this question.
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