Climate change challenges for flexible pavement in Canada: an overview

• Published in: Journal of Cold Regions Engineering
• Main Authors: Maadani, Omran, Shafiee, Mohammad, Egorov, Igor
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: American Society of Civil Engineers 2021
• Subjects: heat effect; precipitation effect; flexible pavement; stiffness of asphalt concrete; pavement structural behavior; climatic parameters; permafrost; terrain; climate change; pavement design; pavement condition; highway and road design; highways and roads; asphalt pavements; North America; Canada; Ice
• Online Access: https://doi.org/10.1061/(ASCE)CR.1943-5495.0000262; https://nrc-publications.canada.ca/eng/view/accepted/?id=33071d4e-249f-4679-9f6d-d929e2674b1b; https://nrc-publications.canada.ca/eng/view/object/?id=33071d4e-249f-4679-9f6d-d929e2674b1b; https://nrc-publications.canada.ca/fra/voir/objet/?id=33071d4e-249f-4679-9f6d-d929e2674b1b

This paper provides an outlook on the effects of climate change and the severity and frequency of extreme weather events on the performance of flexible pavements across North America. Now more than ever, the climate is changing at a rapid pace, which will alter long-term environmental loading parameters and extreme weather events. Such alterations will pose implications for the design, maintenance, and rehabilitation of flexible pavements, especially in terms of their serviceability, safety, and functionality. In northern Canada, roads are founded on various terrain types, including thaw-sensitive ice-rich permafrost underlying terrains. Such roads have experienced signs of embankment and pavement damage, which are usually induced by the degradation of the underlying permafrost due to climate change. Therefore, the development and implementation of new permafrost thaw mitigation techniques for vulnerable roads are essential and will be discussed in this paper. Resilient flexible roads should be designed to withstand the conditions that are likely to occur during their design life, taking into account the impact of the climate change on pavement performance in response to daily and seasonal changes in heat, precipitation, freeze–thaw cycles, and extreme weather events. Peer reviewed: Yes NRC publication: Yes