Edmonton Waste Management Centre (EWMC) Test Road

The test road is a new 500-m long access road for the EWMC, located northeast of Edmonton. The test section is scheduled to be constructed and instrumented with more than 230 different sensors in spring and summer of 2012. The research project is sponsored and funded by national and provincial organizations as listed below:

• Canadian Foundation for Innovation
• Alberta Transportation
• Alberta Tire Recycling
• City of Edmonton

The research project includes eight different instrumentation sections to investigate:

• Performance of three road embankments filled with tire shredded aggregates (TDA) made from three different scrap tires sources,
• Performance of three different materials as road insulation layers,
• Flexible pavement performance in a Cold Region.

Investigation of the Effects of Environmental Factors on Pavement Properties and Performance in Cold Regions

The main objective of this research is to characterize and quantify the effects of environmental factors on pavement materials and performance in cold regions using a comprehensive laboratory, field, and network research program. The laboratory program will characterize several types of soils via simulation of several environmental scenarios. Thaw-weakening indices and prediction models will be developed to characterize pavement materials behavior. The field monitoring program and network study will provide authentic data to facilitate the evaluation of laboratory findings. This study is funded by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Council.

Evaluation of the Accuracy of Weigh-In-Motion (WIM) Systems in Alberta and its Effects on Pavement Design

This project includes the evaluation of the accuracy of the traffic data collected using WIM systems.  Six WIM stations located on different highway locations in Alberta were evaluated through a validation testing program, conducted from 2006 to 2010. This project is sponsored by the Alberta Transportation.

Seasonal Variations of Subgrade Moduli in Cold Climate Conditions- A Network Analysis on Alberta Highways

Ten-year network Falling Weight Deflectometer (FWD) testing results on more than 180 road sections in the Province of Alberta is used to investigate the seasonal variations in the subgrade moduli. This project is sponsored by the Alberta Transportation.

Identification, Evaluation and Implementation of Technologies for Winter Road Management

A multi-phase research study is conducted to identify, experiment, and possibly implement real-time and continuous road friction measurements to evaluate road surface conditions objectively and quantitatively. The main objective of the project is to evaluate current winter operations and possibly provide recommendations for future improvements in the present practice. This project is sponsored by The City of Edmonton.

Evaluation of the Effects of Canadian Climate Conditions on the MEPDG Predictions for Flexible Pavement Performance

This study aims to investigate the quality of the recently developed Canadian climatic database and the effect of climatic factors on flexible pavement performance using the Mechanistic-Empirical Pavement Design Guide (MEPDG).