A Saskatoon researcher is looking for new ways to build winter-resistant roads so road construction windows can be stretched across the city.
Haytham Soliman, an assistant professor of engineering at the University of Saskatchewan in the United States, is leading a project to find ways to build durable roads in conditions less than ideal for road construction.
“To deliver or construct a high-quality asphalt road, it must be delivered to a high-temperature construction site, which cannot be achieved if the air temperature is very cold,” Soliman said, adding that cold outdoor temperatures can cause the asphalt to become brittle, lose durability and make it more susceptible to freezing and cracking in cold temperatures.
The problem of asphalt getting too cool for construction is a limiting factor when it comes to road work, Soliman said, placing limits on the length of construction projects and how far they can go in the cooler months. This is exactly the problem he hopes his research project can solve.
The project is funded by the University of Saskatchewan and the City of Saskatoon through the Research Junction Initiative. These collaborations allow the city to team up with university researchers to enable innovations that would not otherwise be possible.
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“Sidewalk projects are multimillion-dollar projects, so devoting a small percentage, maybe around $100,000 or a few $100,000, to a small research project can save millions or several million dollars over the years,” Soliman said.
Questions about how the city could extend the construction season and identification of existing limitations helped galvanize this collaborative project, said Matthew Hiltz, asset conservation manager for the City of Saskatoon.
“Being a cold-weather province, we're always constrained by the approach of winter. So as we're doing our contracts and doing road repairs, we always get to a point where we have to make a decision about whether to continue or postpone something until next year,” Hiltz said.
“So we're just trying to better understand where those limitations are, where we can improve our design combinations, our construction methods, before we decide to proceed.”
The project is currently in its first phase, with researchers conducting a cross-jurisdictional scan of the country to see what other municipalities with similar weather conditions are doing.
Soliman said this phase also includes studying different construction equipment and asphalt additives that will allow roads to be built in cooler temperatures.
According to Soliman, if the first phase of the project is successful, it will move into the second phase, where adjustments, laboratory modeling and field testing of the ideal product itself will be performed.
“At the end of this project, we will make some recommendations on how to move forward with the end-of-season pavement problem,” Soliman said.
For the city, collaborating with university experts helps them gain experience and find solutions they might not otherwise be able to find, Hiltz said.
“It was a great opportunity. We're very fortunate to have this experience very close to home that allows us to explore these ideas.”
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