Search

Driven by human influence, Canada’s climate has warmed and will warm further at a rate of double the global average. Climate change phenomenon, commonly known as ‘global warming’, is expected to cause irreversible temperature rise as well as other environmental anomalies that could affect transportation infrastructures. With continued growth in greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in future, rising temperatures will have consequences on the short and long-term performance of the Jointed Plain Concrete Pavement (JPCP) systems. In this study, climate change impact on a typical JPCP structure was modeled using Pavement ME Design (PMED) software. The PMED modeling results were fed into a two-layer feed-forward network with sigmoid hidden neurons and linear output neurons. Results of this study indicated that the developed ANN models are effective and capable of accurately predicting the potential and relative impact of climate change on JPCP., 2021 TAC Conference & Exhibition, September 20 to October 1, 2021, Online

Future changes in precipitation and extreme flood events represent risks for urban infrastructures in Canada. Pervious concrete pavements (PCP) are normally designed to reduce the runoff water and avoid urban flooding as a stormwater management solution. As a result, it is important to adapt PCP design to changing climate by considering site-specific projected storm intensities and durations. In this study, first, a series of sensitivity analysis were performed using PerviousPave software to test the robustness of its structural and hydrological models. Secondly, projected data from simulated Intensity Duration Frequency (IDF) curves were incorporated in PerviousPave software to investigate the relative impact of climate change on the PCP’s hydrological design. Integrating future trends in storm intensity with hydrological design offered a more efficient use of PCP for stormwater management in urban developments, 2020 TAC Conference & Exhibition, September 21 - October 8, 2020, Online

Adapting flexible pavements systems to the impact of climate change is a challenge in Canada. It is well-known that increasing temperatures and more frequent extreme heat events represent risks for the flexible pavements. These vulnerabilities may put additional pressure on Canadian transportation infrastructure and economy, as weather begins to deviate more and more from historic temperatures. Selecting suitable Performance Graded (PG) asphalt binders for pavement construction heavily depends on temperature conditions at the site. Hence, the goal of this research paper is to evaluate the impact of climate change on PG selection for several Canadian cities based on different Representative Concentration Pathway (RCP) scenarios. In this study, projected temperature from ANUSPLIN datasets were used to obtain the necessary climatic parameters defined in the SUPERPAVE specifications. Projections of future PG changes highlighted the need for climate change adaptation policies and action sets in Canada., 2020 TAC Conference & Exhibition, September 21 - October 8, 2020, Online

Canada’s buildings, bridges, roads, rail transit, potable water systems and wastewater systems provide shelter and safe drinking water, enable transport of people and goods, and collect and treat wastewater. They provide basic and core services for Canadians and are critical to Canada’s economy and the nation’s quality of life. These buildings and core public infrastructure (B&CPI) are subject to time-varying and uncertain effects due to climate change, as well as more frequent extreme weather events, such as flooding. These climate changeinduced pressures could potentially reduce the safety, serviceability, functionality, and service life of Canada’s B&CPI. In addition, Canadian B&CPI are aging and deteriorating due to different degradation mechanisms, as well as inadequate inspection and maintenance practices – issues potentially made worse by the effects of climate change. The Climate-Resilient Buildings and Core Public Infrastructure (CRBCPI) initiative was established as a research and development partnership between the National Research Council of Canada (NRC) and Infrastructure Canada to develop new and revised codes, standards, specifications, guidelines and decision support tools to ensure that Canada’s new and existing B&CPI are more resilient to the effects of climate change and extreme weather events. Funded by Infrastructure Canada and managed by NRC, the effort brings together experts from across Canada. Initiative priority areas include buildings, bridges, roads, potable water, storm water, and wastewater systems, and rail transit guideways. The initiative addresses resilience to climate change impacts on temperature, precipitation, wind and extreme weather events, including flooding, wildfires and extreme wind, which can affect these types of B&CPI across the country.

Canadian pavement infrastructures, now more than ever, face risks associated with the potential impacts of climate and extreme weather events. Canada has experienced and continues to experience a number of changes to environmental variables affecting the performance of pavements, including temperature, precipitation, sea level rise, flooding, and extreme weather events. Therefore, road agencies and public are increasingly concerned with climate resiliency of pavement infrastructures which were not intended to accommodate intense environmental conditions due to climate change. While much has been written about the general behavior of flexible pavements in response to climate change, yet there has been relatively scant investigation of the rigid pavement climate resiliency and sustainability. This paper primarily focuses on the vulnerability and long-term performance of Jointed Plain Concrete Pavement (JPCP) Structures from Mechanistic-Empirical Pavement Design Guide (MEPDG) perspective. In this paper, climatic data obtained from the latest Canadian Regional Climate Model (CanRCM4) were used. Simulation results from incorporating the projected climate data into AASHTOWare Pavement ME Design software showed that the magnitude of impacts and the degree of vulnerability arising from climate change was inconsistent between different performance indicators. Also, sensitivity analysis of the MEPDG distress models to multiple climatic factors revealed different trends of variation depending on climate variable., 2019 TAC-ITS Canada Joint Conference & Exhibition, September 22-25, 2019, Halifax, NS, Canada

Les bâtiments, les ponts, les routes, le transport en commun sur rail de même que les réseaux d'alimentation en eau potable et d'évacuation des eaux usées du Canada fournissent un abri et de l'eau potable, et permettent le transport des personnes et des marchandises ainsi que la collecte et le traitement des eaux usées. Ils fournissent des services de base essentiels aux Canadiens et sont d'une importance cruciale pour l'économie canadienne et la qualité de vie de la nation. Ces bâtiments et infrastructures publiques de base (BIPB) subissent des effets incertains et variables dans le temps en raison des changements climatiques, et sont soumis à des événements météorologiques extrêmes plus fréquents, comme les inondations. Ces pressions induites par les changements climatiques pourraient éventuellement réduire la sécurité, le rendement en service, la fonctionnalité et la durée de vie des BIPB du Canada. De plus, les BIPB canadiens vieillissent et se détériorent en raison de différents mécanismes de dégradation, ainsi que de pratiques inadéquates d'inspection et d'entretien – des problèmes potentiellement aggravés par les effets des changements climatiques. L'initiative Bâtiments et infrastructures publiques de base résilients aux changements climatiques (BIPBRCC) a été établie sous forme de partenariat de recherche-développement entre le Conseil national de recherches du Canada (CNRC) et Infrastructure Canada afin d'élaborer des codes, des normes, des spécifications, des lignes directrices et des outils décisionnels nouveaux et révisés pour rendre les BIPB nouveaux et existants au Canada plus résilients face aux effets des changements climatiques et des événements météorologiques extrêmes. Financée par Infrastructure Canada et gérée par le CNRC, cette initiative réunit des experts de partout au pays. Les secteurs prioritaires de l'initiative comprennent les bâtiments, les ponts, les routes, les réseaux d'eau potable, d'eaux pluviales et d'eaux usées, ainsi que les transports en commun sur rail. L'initiative porte sur la résilience face aux impacts des changements climatiques sur la température, les précipitations, le vent et les événements météorologiques extrêmes, notamment les inondations, les incendies de forêt et le vent extrême, qui peuvent affecter ces types de BIPB partout au pays.

This paper presents an overview of the effects of environmental factors, namely moisture and temperature, on the material properties of flexible pavement road structure considered in the design guides of AASHTO. It considers the historical development of AASHTO design guides with new design guides. The study showed the shift in emphasis from total reliance on an empirical method to a combination of mechanistic and empirical methods in the new design guide. Further, moisture and temperature were indirectly considered in the current guide, whereas these parameters are accounted for in the new design guide through the resilient modulus and the complex modulus. The sensitivity analyses of environmental consideration using the new design guide software are presented in this paper.

Monitoring the temperature gradient of pavement structure layers and its effect on the structural behaviour helped to establish a fundamental understanding of the magnitude and impact of these variations on the pavement response to different loading conditions. The performance of pavements clearly reveals the need to properly measure the distribution of stresses and strains within road layers over a period of time taking into account the effect of extreme temperatures. The adverse effects of traffic speed during hot weather conditions on the structural behaviour of the flexible pavement are briefly discussed and possible recommendations to overcome these effects. Structural data including stresses and strains were collected under the action of external loads applied by a calibrated test trucks. To mimic the effect temperature extreme events on the flexible pavements, the study was carried out on flexible roads immediately after the construction at 51o C (truck impact test) and 44o C (truck creep test) and after one year at normal operating temperature (20o C). The field results showed unprecedented high stress and strain levels caused by low asphalt stiffness when the asphalt mat temperature is above a normal operating temperature. Traffic-induced stresses and strains transmitted through the asphalt concrete layer to unbound materials of the asphalt concrete are directly influenced by the stiffness. The impact test using a truck speed lower than 25 km/h resulted in a very high truck pressure impact. This study confirmed that most of pavement performance problems occurred at locations were buses frequently stopped and areas close to traffic signals. This finding highlighted the importance of traffic speed impact, extreme hot weather events and the interaction of both., 2017 TAC Conference & Exhibition, September 24-27, 2017, St. John’s, Newfoundland, Canada