Sustainable and Resilient Long Life Pavements

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Roads and pavements represent a massive investment in Canada. Planning, designing, constructing, maintaining and managing cost effective, high quality roads and pavements are a major challenge to provinces, territories, cities, municipalities and airport authorities. In many areas of Canada, high quality road building materials are becoming scarce and expensive, while opportunities exist to incorporate and optimize the use of innovative waste materials into our pavement infrastructure. This research program involves an integrated laboratory and field approach which is balanced by conducting basic and applied research with the end goal of longer lasting, safe and resilient pavement infrastructure which are cost effective and sustainable. The major focus of the research program involves two primary theme areas. The first theme area works on formally incorporating environmental sustainability, particularly recycling of various materials in higher percentages into Canadian pavement design and management practices. It involves identification and evaluation of sustainable pavement materials, pavement designs such as solar roads, and pavement construction technologies. The second theme area of focus is on the advancement of pavement engineering through the incorporation of environmental data which considers climate change impacts including examining extreme weather events such as flash flooding and their impact on pavement infrastructure. This research is pertinent and important because if a pavement is going to achieve a longer design life, it must consider both loading and environmental impacts over that life cycle period. This involves better understanding of the impacts of both the number and duration of freeze-thaw cycles, precipitation quantities and changes in minimum and maximum pavement temperatures as all of these factors impact performance. If both current and future environmental conditions are not considered, design lives will not be achieved as there will be increased potholes, increased rutting and increased cracking distresses on pavement structures across Canada. This Discovery Grant will explore innovative pavement technologies that advance and extend pavement life with a strong emphasis on usage of sustainable technologies and materials. This research will consider green pavement technologies within a technical and economic context. It will also utilize field data to develop realistic long term performance models and the research program will formally consider workability and constructability of new designs and materials. The research will be directed at advancing state-of-the-art practice in Canada through the training of HQP who will be the next generation of innovators in this vital area.