Impacts Of Flooding On Concrete Pavement

Abstract

With shifting paradigms in usual climatic events and increased occurrence of flood hazards, vulnerability assessment and adaptation of road infrastructure is essential. Road pavements are critical in sustaining socio-economic activities and their vulnerability to flood hazards could have serious cost consequences. Therefore, a conscientious decision to consider pavement materials, designs and alternatives that are resilient to recurring flood events is desired. Based on previous investigations into how pavements types, classes and configuration respond to extreme events, concrete pavements are reported as better flood-resilient systems in countries that have experienced intense flooding and inundation. Although Canada has experienced some of the worst flood incidences in history and owns a number of concrete pavement infrastructure, no study has been conducted to better understand its performance under extreme conditions. To provide insight on concrete pavement flood response, the use of the state of the art AASHTOWare Pavement ME Design (PMED) program is employed to model various flood scenarios on concrete pavement types and configurations common to two Canadian provinces, Ontario and Manitoba. The performance of the various pavement classes in terms of flood resilience, service life and cost feasibility is analyzed and results provide insight on the resilience and adaptive capacity of rigid pavements to flood hazards in Canada.