PERFORMANCE OF A SPECIALIZED HAUL ROUTE
ABSTRACT The James Bay Access road was constructed in 1972-74 to provide access to the James Bay Hydroelectric project on the La Grande River. The 720-kilometre access road was constructed in just 450 days over difficult terrain conditions. The highway was paved in 1975 and 1976. The road was constr...
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| Format: | Text |
| Language: | English |
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| Online Access: | http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.659.9926 http://pavementmanagement.org/ICMPfiles/2001004.pdf |
| Summary: | ABSTRACT The James Bay Access road was constructed in 1972-74 to provide access to the James Bay Hydroelectric project on the La Grande River. The 720-kilometre access road was constructed in just 450 days over difficult terrain conditions. The highway was paved in 1975 and 1976. The road was constructed as a private access road for the hydroelectric construction project and was opened to the public after the project was completed. The road has been subjected to intensive truck traffic as it provided access for all cement, fuel and construction materials required for the massive project. In addition, there were a number of special hauls required to transport 500 tonne transformers. Given that the owner was also the sole “user, ” weight restrictions and maintenance requirements were viewed quite differently compared to a normal highway department perspective. This paper reviews the pavement condition over the past 25 years. This data provides a unique large scale study of pavement performance when subjected to severe traffic and climatic conditions. As a pavement management system was instituted at the same time as construction, the paper reviews the evolution of that pavement management system over the life of the pavement. The analysis indicated that the overall performance of the pavements was controlled by subgrade type. Rutting performance on weaker soils was mediocre despite thick granular sections that were dictated by designs based on limiting deflections. The use of softer grade asphalt (a forerunner of Performance Grades) reduced transverse cracking for at least 10 years but all pavements were extensively cracked after 20 years. |
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