Sustainable development requires improvements in the use of natural resources. The main objective of the present study was to optimize the use of materials in the construction of reinforced concrete precast hinged frames. Proprietary software was developed in the Python programming language. This allowed the structure’s calculation, verification and optimization through the application of metaheuristic techniques. The final cost is a direct representation of the use of materials. Thus, three algorithms were applied to solve the economic optimization of the frame. By applying simulated annealing, threshold accepting and old bachelor’s acceptance algorithms, sustainable, non-traditional designs were achieved. These make optimal use of natural resources while maintaining a highly restricted final cost. In order to evaluate the environmental impact improvement, the carbon-dioxide-associated emissions were studied and compared with a reference cast-in-place reinforced concrete frame. The results showed designs with reduced upper slab and lateral wall depth and dense passive reinforcement. These were able to reduce up to 24% of the final cost of the structure as well as over 30% of the associated emissions.

This paper addresses a study of cost-optimal road modular hinged frames. The performance of three hybrid metaheuristics is assessed through a fractional factorial design of experiments. The results allow for selecting and calibrating the hybrid simulated annealing to solve the combinatorial optimization problem. By varying the horizontal span from 8 to 16 meters and the earth cover from 1 to 5 meters, 25 different structural configurations are studied. The calibrated methodology is applied to obtain nine different frames with optimal costs for each configuration. The study of the economic, environmental and geometrical characteristics of the 225 optimum structures allows for the development of a regression analysis. With R2 correlation coefficients close to the unit, the expressions form a valuable tool for calculating the final cost, associated emissions, embodied energy and particular geometric characteristics. The optimum structures present slender and densely reinforced designs. In addition, some structures show considerable reductions in the shear reinforcement, something solved by localized increases in longitudinal reinforcement.