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Title:

Measuring and Predicting Soil Temperature and Moisture Content Beneath Highways in Nova Scotia, Canada: One Year of Observations and Forecasts
Cover of Measuring and Predicting Soil Temperature and Moisture Content Beneath Highways in Nova Scotia, Canada: One Year of Observations and Forecasts

Accession Number:

01371225

Record Type:

Component

Availability:

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Order URL: http://worldcat.org/issn/00978515

Abstract:

Heavy traffic during the spring thaw causes faster degradation of the pavement and leads to increased maintenance fees. To reduce the damage, most provinces in Canada implement spring load restrictions for heavy traffic. Given that conditions often veer from climatology, imposing load restrictions at fixed dates every year is not optimal. It can lead to increased road damage or increased costs to the transportation industry. With funding from the Nova Scotia Department of Transportation and Infrastructure Renewal (NSTIR), probes capable of measuring both soil temperature and moisture to a depth of 110 cm were installed at six different locations around Nova Scotia in fall 2010. Immediate uses of the observations by NSTIR are discussed. An objective guidance tool was developed to help departments of transportation to determine the beginning of the seasonal load adjustment periods, far enough in advance for the road transportation industry to adjust their plans. To achieve this, a soil energy and mass balance model was used to predict soil temperature. The model, SNTHERM, is initialized with the probe observations and driven by atmospheric conditions from numerical weather prediction models. Simulations are run daily, out to 5 days for the six Nova Scotia sites and for one site in the Northwest Territories. Results to date are promising and indicate that it is possible to provide advance warning of the spring thaw in roads.

Monograph Accession #:

01371195

Report/Paper Numbers:

WM-STW12-122

Language:

English

Authors:

Pouliot, Benoit
Delannoy, Paul
Woodhams, Phil
Allan, Shawn
Kidson, Olga

Pagination:

pp 465-477

Publication Date:

2012-4

Serial:

Transportation Research Circular

Issue Number: E-C162
Publisher: Transportation Research Board
ISSN: 0097-8515

Conference:

International Conference on Winter Maintenance and Surface Transportation Weather

Location: Coralville Iowa, United States
Date: 2012-4-30 to 2012-5-3
Sponsors: Transportation Research Board; Iowa Department of Transportation; American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO); Federal Highway Administration

Media Type:

Web

Features:

Figures; Maps; References; Tables

Uncontrolled Terms:

Spring thaw; Subsurface temperature

Geographic Terms:

Nova Scotia

Subject Areas:

Highways; Maintenance and Preservation; I62: Winter Maintenance

Files:

TRIS, TRB

Created Date:

May 18 2012 2:41PM