Instrumentation monitoring of clay subgrade along southern Manitoba highways

David Kurz, Dami Adedapo, Rob Kenyon, Jeff Tallin

In the proceedings of: GeoEdmonton 2018: 71st Canadian Geotechnical Conference; 13th joint with IAH-CNC

Session: Transportation Geotechnics I

ABSTRACT: A problem with structural deterioration was noted on a recently constructed flexible pavement highway founded on high plasticity glacio-lacustrine clays approximately 10 km south of Winnipeg, Manitoba. Various cracking was observed, including longitudinal, centerline, transverse, and some short random cracks. Primary hypotheses for the failure mechanism included swelling of the subgrade and differential frost action. Two highway sections of similar design were selected for instrumentation, focusing on monitoring soil moisture, ground temperature, frost action, and soil suction potential at the sites to determine factors that may have resulted in the observed distress of the pavement structure. Data for the two sites were collected from the two sites between November 2007 and November 2015. This paper presents and discusses the eight (8) years of field data that has been collected at the instrumented sites.

RÉSUMÉ: Un problème de détérioration de la structure a été noté sur une chaussée de chaussée souple construite récemment, construite à partir d'argiles glacio-lacustres à haute plasticité, à environ 10 km au sud de Winnipeg, au Manitoba. Diverses fissures ont été observées, notamment longitudinales, axiales, transversales et quelques courtes fissures aléatoires. Les hypothèses primaires pour le mécanisme de défaillance comprenaient le gonflement de la sous-couche et l'action différentielle du gel. Deux sections d'autoroute de conception similaire ont été choisies pour l'instrumentation, en se concentrant sur la surveillance de l'humidité du sol, la température du sol, l'action du gel et le potentiel d'aspiration du sol sur les sites afin de déterminer les facteurs de détresse observés. Les données pour les deux sites ont été recueillies sur les deux sites entre novembre 2007 et novembre 2015. Cet article présente et discute les huit (8) années de données sur le terrain qui ont été recueillies sur les sites instrumentés.

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Cite this article:
David Kurz; Dami Adedapo; Rob Kenyon; Jeff Tallin (2018) Instrumentation monitoring of clay subgrade along southern Manitoba highways in GEO2018. Ottawa, Ontario: Canadian Geotechnical Society.

@article{geo2018Paper487,author = David Kurz; Dami Adedapo; Rob Kenyon; Jeff Tallin,title = Instrumentation monitoring of clay subgrade along southern Manitoba highways ,year = 2018}