01620181

Component

https://doi.org/10.3141/2639-01

Coastal communities with road infrastructure close to the shoreline are vulnerable to the effects of sea level rise caused by climate change. The sea level in coastal New Hampshire is projected to rise by 3.9 to 6.6 ft (1.2 to 2.0 m) by 2100. Climate change vulnerability and adaptation studies have focused on surface water flooding caused by sea level rise; however, little attention has been given to the effects of climate change on groundwater. Groundwater is expected to rise with sea level rise and will intersect the unbound layers of coastal road infrastructure, thus reducing the service life of pavement. Vulnerability studies are an essential part of adaptation planning, and pavement engineers are looking for methods to identify roads that may experience premature failure. In this study, a regional groundwater flow model of coastal New Hampshire was used to identify road infrastructure for which rising groundwater will move into the unbound materials during the design life of the pavement. Multilayer elastic theory was used to analyze typical pavement profiles in several functional classifications of roadway to determine the magnitude of fatigue and rutting life reduction expected from four scenarios of sea level rise. All the evaluation sites experienced service life reduction, the magnitude and timing of which depended on the current depth to groundwater, the pavement structure, and the subgrade. The use of this methodology will enable pavement engineers to target coastal road adaptation projects effectively and will result in significant cost savings compared with implementation of broad adaptation projects or the costs of no action.

01632579

17-05250

English

pp 1–10

2017

Transportation Research Record: Journal of the Transportation Research Board

9780309441636

Digital/other

Figures (4) ; Maps; References (35) ; Tables (1)

Climate change; Coasts; Elastic analysis; Evaluation and assessment; Forecasting; Groundwater; Pavement performance; Rutting; Sea level; Service life; Subgrade (Pavements)

New Hampshire

Environment; Geotechnology; Highways; Hydraulics and Hydrology; Pavements

PRP, TRIS, TRB, ATRI

Dec 8 2016 12:03PM

• Assessing the Effect of Considering Multiple Data Properties on Detecting Potential Errors in Pavement Condition Data
• Challenges to Using Environmental Product Declarations in Communicating Life-Cycle Assessment Results: Case of the Asphalt Industry
• Combined Model Framework for Asphalt Pavement Condition Determination After Flooding
• Coordination of User and Agency Costs Using Two-Level Approach for Pavement Management Optimization
• Cost-Effective Performance Management for Washington State Pavement Assets
• Estimation of Pavement Serviceability Index Through Android-Based Smartphone Application for Local Roads
• Evaluation Framework for Automated Pavement Distress Identification and Quantification Applications
• Incorporating Braking Distance Evaluation into Pavement Management System for Safe Road Operation
• Integration of Traffic Speed Deflectometer and Ground-Penetrating Radar for Network-Level Roadway Structure Evaluation
• Microscale Heat Island Characterization of Rigid Pavements
• Pavement Friction Degradation Based on Pennsylvania Field Test Data
• Probabilistic Characterization of Life-Cycle Agency and User Costs: Case Study of Minnesota
• Sampling to Evaluate Performance on the Interstate Highway System
• Statistical Model to Detect Voids for Curled or Warped Concrete Pavements