A Saskatoon-based researcher is looking into new ways of building roadways resistant to winter conditions so windows of road construction can be stretched in the city.
Haithem Soliman, associate professor in engineering at the University of Saskatchewan (USask), is leading the project to discover ways to build strong roads in conditions that are less-than-ideal for road construction.
“To deliver or build a high quality asphalt road, it has to be delivered to the construction site connected to the high temperature, which cannot be achieved if the air temperature is very low,” said Soliman, adding that cool temperatures outside can cause the asphalt to become brittle, lacking durability and making it more susceptible to freezing and cracking in cold temperatures.
The issue of asphalt becoming too cool for construction is a limiting factor when it comes to road work, said Soliman, placing constraints on the length of construction projects and how far they can push it into the cooler months. This is what he hopes his research project can solve.
The project is funded by the University of Saskatchewan and the City of Saskatoon in its Research Junction Initiative program. This pairing allows the city to team up with researchers at the university to innovate in ways the city may otherwise be unable to.
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“Pavement projects are multi-million dollar projects, so allocating a small percentage, maybe like $100,000 or a few $100,000 for a small research project, can save millions or multi-millions of dollars over the years,” said Soliman.
Questions surrounding how the city can extend its construction season and identifying existing limitations helped fuel this joint project, said Matthew Hiltz, asset preservation manager at the City of Saskatoon.
“Being a cold-weather province, we’re always constrained by winter as it approaches. So as we are performing our contracts and resurfacing roads, we always get to a point where we have to make a decision whether to continue or to postpone something to the next year,” said Hiltz.
“So we’re just really trying to get a better understanding of where those limits are, where we can improve our design mixes, construction methods, before making a decision to continue on.”
The project is currently in its first stage, with researchers conducting a cross-jurisdictional scan of the country to see what other municipalities with similar weather conditions are doing.
Soliman said this stage also involves exploring different construction equipment and asphalt additives that would allow road construction at lower temperatures.
If the first phase of the project is successful, it will move into a second phase, said Soliman, where adjustments, in-lab simulations and in-field testing of the most ideal product will be carried out.
“At the end of this project we’ll do some recommendations on how to move ahead with this issue of late-season pavement,” said Soliman.
For the city, collaborating with university experts helps them gain expertise and find solutions in ways they may not otherwise have, said Hiltz.
“It’s been a great opportunity. We’ve been very fortunate to have such expertise really close to home that allows us to explore these ideas.”
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