About the project

Construction-related transport is a big component of urban traffic and can be highly disruptive to daily life. The Sustainable Urban Consolidation CentrES for conStruction project investigated an alternative approach where, instead of transporting goods and materials directly to a site, they were taken first to a construction consolidation centre (CCC).

The idea of a consolidation centre is related to the possibility of aggregating different loads dropped off by carriers and making deliveries to the construction site using cleaner vehicles with a higher load factor. SUCCESS’ insights were built on data collected from four separate construction projects, in Luxembourg City, Paris, Valencia and Verona.

The simulations showed that an improved supply chain management could reduce the number of freight vehicles between 42 and 54%, noxious emissions between 8 and 41%, and the distance travelled between 20 and 42%. Furthermore, small deliveries can be entirely eliminated and the load factor can be increased by 41% to 232%.

Proper management of a CCC can make it a viable business, with a payback of less than a year in the best-case. The project developed an open toolkit, including a cost/benefit analysis tool to assess the impact of a CCC, and a tool to identify the ideal location for a centre. The project’s had a clear practical impact, with CCCs implemented in cities such as Florence and Brussels.

Find more in-depth information on the lessons learned in SUCCESS on p.28 - p.30 of the publication CIVITAS Research Projects - Lessons Learned - 2015-2018.