The research program will focus on the development of cost-effective solutions for the design and the management of road, airstrips and railways constructed on permafrost. This will require a better understanding of factors contributing to permafrost degradation, improvement of investigation techniques for identifying sensitive permafrost and the development of engineering tools to support design and management of transportation infrastructure in Northern Canada.
The goal of the proposed program is to improve current adaptive capacities by developing expertise for mitigating permafrost instability beneath transportation infrastructure in a context of climate change. In order to achieve this goal, the following objectives are proposed:
1) improve knowledge of factors affecting the performance of pavements built on sensitive permafrost,
2) improve techniques for detection and characterization of instable soils and embankments,
3) develop guidelines for the application of different construction and maintenance strategies to mitigate permafrost degradation problems resulting from pavement construction and climate change based on the cost, the feasibility and the effectiveness of applicable solutions
4) develop a practical framework as well as support tools for the management of transportation infrastructure on permafrost