Best Practices for Road Weather Management Version 2.0
Title:
Development and Calibration of Frost and Thaw Depth Predictors for Use in Variable Load Restrictions Decision-Making on Flexible Low-Volume Roads
Abstract:
Covering the northern part of Ontario, low-volume roads enable the movement of goods from remote resource areas to markets and are thus a critical asset. However, challenged by a combination of heavy, low frequency traffic loading and a high number of freeze-thaw cycles for which most have not been structurally designed, such highways often experience seasonal damage and premature traffic-induced deterioration. To mitigate these impacts, the Ontario Ministry of Transportation and other Departments of Transportation place Seasonal Load Restrictions (SLRs) every year during spring-thaw. For economic reasons, the duration of SLRs is usually fixed in advance and is not applied according to conditions in a particular year. Rigidity in the schedule may result in economic losses as the payload can be unnecessarily restricted or pavement deterioration can occur. The latest attempts to address this issue include the use of climatic and deflection data to better assess the bearing capacity of the roadway. This paper examines how the use of frost and thaw depth predictors to track spring-thaw weakening could improve the scheduling of load restrictions. Based on field data captured in Northern Ontario, this study found a good correlation between the amount of frost depth in the pavement and weather conditions monitored by Road Weather Information Systems (RWIS). The steps outlining how the model was developed are presented in this paper, and the calculation algorithms are detailed. Finally, an empirical methodology for site-specific calibration of the predictors is proposed.
Source(s):
87th Transportation Research Board (TRB) Annual Meeting, Helsinki University of Technology (Finland). For an electronic copy of this resource, please direct your request to WeatherFeedback@dot.gov.
Date: 2007
Author:
Baïz, Tighe, Haas, Mills, Perchanok
Keywords:
Pavement deterioration
Climate/Season
Ice/Frost
Institutional issues
Forecast/Prediction
Environmental Sensor Station (ESS)
Air temperature
Pavement temperature
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