No more broken pavement around manholes

It's a problem seen all around Ottawa streets every winter and it's not a pretty sight. And it doesn't please drivers who must endure a bumpy ride because of it. The ugly sight is broken pavement around manholes, a costly problem caused by frost heave and one that frustrates city engineers and officials and leaves taxpayers coughing up for the extensive, disruptive repairs that must be carried out. Help may be on the way thanks to an innovation developed at the National Research Council's Institute for Research in Construction (IRC). The key to this innovation, the brainchild of researcher Dr. Otto Svec, is to channel the natural heat flowing through sewers to the area around manholes, thereby preventing the surrounding pavement from breaking up.