High Occupancy Toll (HOT) lanes are considered as one of the traffic management strategies to efficiently utilize the available roadway capacity. In order to understand drivers’ reactions to the planned HOT lane along the Highway 427 corridor in the City of Toronto and estimate the value of time (VOT) and value of reliability (VOR), a web-based stated preference survey was carefully designed and conducted. Using Multinomial Logit (MNL) and Nested Logit (NL) models, the travellers’ willingness-to-pay was derived as the trade-off between travel time saved and toll incurred. The models were further estimated for different market segments.
Highway 3 is the most southern trans-provincial highway in British Columbia. It is a key national transportation link for trade, industry and tourism between the Pacific Ocean and the rest of Canada. Along the western slopes of the Rocky Mountains, Highway 3 transects critical wildlife habitat corridors that run between Canada and the United States (Figure 1). Many iconic North American ungulates and carnivores use these corridors to survive. Traffic on Highway 3 represents a serious impediment to the safe movement across the highway for many species of wildlife. Concurrently, the larger wildlife represent a significant potential hazard for drivers (Figure 2).
As part of the 2015 Rural Highway Safety and Speed Review conducted by the British Columbia Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure (BCMoTI), the Highway 3 corridor, between Cranbrook and the Alberta border, was identified as having one of the highest densities of wildlife-vehicle collisions in the province. Presently, the mountainous terrain and extensively fragmented land tenure preclude the construction of wildlife exclusion systems along this corridor. To test alternative technological solutions, to protect both wildlife and drivers, BCMoTI developed specifications for a wildlife detection system (WDS) (Figures 3 and 4) and installed two systems on Highway 3, one near Elko and the other near Sparwood (Figure 5). Despite numerous technological, environmental and operational challenges, the project was delivered on budget and on time. Since going live in 2016, the systems have proven to reduce wildlife-vehicle collisions while maintaining critical wildlife habitat connectivity.
British Columbia is unique in its challenges. The highways network has more than 46,000 km of roadway and 21 major mountain passes which can be susceptible to rapidly changing road weather conditions. To ensure the safety of the public, BC has been following our BC on the Move, A Ten Year Transportation Plan. One of the key priorities of the plan is to improve highway safety. This plan encourages the use of intelligent transportation technologies to reduce collisions, monitor and manage traffic flows, and provide travellers with timely information. The Ministry recognized that there was a need to develop a system that provided a reliable driving experience during adverse weather conditions to address driver error, distraction and speeding. As part of the commitment to invest in new road safety improvement program, the Ministry designed, constructed and implemented a variable speed limit (VSL) system on 3 corridors in British Columbia that experience rapidly changing weather conditions. These corridors were noted as having severe winter weather conditions, high elevation changes, and a poor road safety performance during winter conditions. The variable speed limit systems were implemented on Highway 5 the Coquihalla, through Snowshed Hill, along Highway 99 between Squamish and Whistler and on Highway 1 from Sicamous to Revelstoke.
The VSL system that the Ministry has developed uses road side collected data on surface conditions, weather, and vehicle speed to make a speed limit recommendation. Variable speed limits were implemented to provide a more reliable driving experience by using real time road condition information to calculate speed limits based on current conditions. These pilot systems will improve safety in adverse weather by lowering the speed limits based on conditions. The variable speed limit system has been operational since 2016 and ministry staff have had an opportunity to monitor the changing driver behaviors over the course of this first winter season. Based on the data that has been collected, it is observed drivers are reducing their speeds on the variable speed corridors when a lowered speed limit is posted. Between December 23 and 30, 2016, BC experienced a severe snow event that impacted all 3 corridors as part of the pilot. Analysis of the posted speeds, 85th percentile and precipitation on the corridors showed that drivers responded to the system and lowered their driving speeds.
The so-called "Mirvish Project", comprised of two 90-storey twin towers located on King Street West in downtown Toronto, represents a unique opportunity to showcase how Active Transportation (AT) can change travel behaviour and public perceptions about "big development" in an urban core. This paper focuses on all of the non-single occupant vehicle (SOV) modes that will be key to the success of this redevelopment project, with a particular emphasis on the tiny amount of motor vehicle parking, but the huge amount of bike parking to compensate.
Detailed below is a compelling story of how a 2,000 unit condominium with retail, an art gallery and a College campus can function successfully in a congested environment with virtually no available roadway capacity for motor vehicles. To make it all work, however, over 2,000 dedicated, indoor bike parking spaces are provided, together with an aggressive Travel Demand Management (TDM) Plan plus high capacity transit, carshare, bikeshare and pedestrian facilities. This infill project balances the preservation of designated heritage buildings with stunning architecture by the world-renowned Canadian architect, Frank Gehry.
The project has numerous unique design and operational features that are highlighted in this paper and corresponding presentation, to elaborate on how City policies and creative infrastructure can attract residents to cycle for both commuting and recreational purposes. Recent City initiatives to construct cycle tracks along major arterials, as well as to retrofit bike lanes on a multitude of City streets in the vicinity of this mega-project, provide strong incentives for "ordinary folk" to bike to work. A major emphasis is also placed on the pedestrian, who can connect to the City's PATH system for both exercise and utilitarian trips.
In conclusion, this paper has broad appeal for both large and small municipalities since it offers valuable insights into how to make a big project on a small footprint really "work". The density is enormous, the cost is staggering, the challenges are daunting but the transportation impacts will be negligible. All of this will be accomplished by placing a significant emphasis on the cycling mode, with help from transit, pedestrian and TDM measures all working in harmony to make a development that is a shining example of high quality, sustainable city building.
Due to the promotion of sustainable transportation by various government agencies and the private sector, many electric vehicle (EV) signage initiatives were taken in the last few years. One unintended consequence of these good intentions is the design of traffic control devices aimed at EV drivers, but executed without proper consideration to the best practices that govern the field of traffic engineering. As an example, green surfaces, actually reserved for cycling facilities, are frequently used for EV reserved parking.
It was in this context that the Transportation Association of Canada’s (TAC) Traffic Operations and Management Standing Committee (TOMSC) undertook the development of traffic control devices aimed at EV drivers. Prior to that, the TAC document Handbook of Recommended Information Sign Symbols for Canada (January 2008) already had a provision for an EV charging station directional sign, but that was an early effort from TOMSC at a time when no major manufacturer even offered an EV for sale in Canada. The design was basically that of the standard gas pump directional sign, but with the letters “EVC” added (for Electric Vehicle Charging). That sign saw little application as the EV community took offense to the fossil fuel analogy. With the new reality of electric mobility front and center, TOMSC set its sights on designing an Electric Vehicle Charging Sign that meets standards as well as the ever changing technological context in which it will be used. To that end, supplementary tab sign options were also developed to stay current with charging technology.
Parking regulations at charging facilities must also facilitate rotation and partial charging to offer renewed mobility to EV drivers, and not just privileged parking. Depending on services offered at the facility and the technical aspects of the plug-in vehicle, a full charge can take as little as 30 minutes or as much as 24 hours. Having the option to regulate maximum charging time is thus desirable from an operations standpoint. With this objective in mind, TOMSC also developed an EV Parking Sign to make sure charging facilities are effectively used to charge up EVs, and not just provide a parking place for electric vehicles.
This paper and presentation will present in detail TAC’s Electric Vehicle Sign Package, while demonstrating to delegates the process that leads to the inclusion of a traffic control device in the Manual of Uniform Traffic Control Devices for Canada (MUTCDC).
Roundabouts have become increasingly common on Canada’s roads since the 1990’s, however, Newfoundland and Labrador has been slower to adopt roundabouts as a means of intersection control. Today, roundabouts remain fairly new and somewhat controversial to Newfoundlanders. Major news was made in 2014 when a traffic calming circle was removed on Old Topsail Road in St. John’s. News headlines were referring to the traffic circle as a roundabout and had a damaging effect on the perception of roundabouts in the region.
The first modern roundabouts in Newfoundland were constructed at the NLL Recycling’s Robin Hood Bay Waste Management facility. Two single-roundabouts were built to improve site circulation for residential and commercial vehicles entering the facility. While these modern roundabouts being constructed were a significant milestone, since the roundabouts were not constructed on the public road network, it did not contribute significantly to the profile of roundabouts in Newfoundland.
It was only 2014 that the Town of Paradise built the first roundabout on the public road network at the intersection of Karwood Drive and Kenmount Road, one of the busiest intersections in Paradise. The resulting traffic impact of the construction of this multi-lane roundabout has acted as a catalyst to roundabout development in the Avalon Peninsula. The roundabout served as an example to surrounding municipalities and residents of the benefits of roundabouts by significantly reducing delay at the congested intersection.
As a result, a number single-lane and multi-lane roundabouts have been constructed in the last three years by the City of St. John’s and by private developers. As these new roundabouts on the Avalon Peninsula continue to demonstrate the benefits of roundabouts, their popularity continues to increase and is spreading towards more rural parts of Newfoundland. Many municipalities have requested that preliminary designs be completed at some of their busiest intersections. Some of these include the City of Corner Brook, Town of Grand FallsWindsor, Town of Paradise, Town of Marystown, Town of Torbay and Town of Bay Roberts.
With the current economic condition in many Newfoundland communities, the municipal decision-makers are recognizing the fact that roundabouts can create a multitude of benefits, most noteworthy, long term cost savings over constructing other types of intersections.
This paper strives to outline the past, present and future of roundabouts in the Province of Newfoundland and Labrador. There are unique challenges that exist in the Province with respect to implementation, acceptance, and education which must be explored and discussed in order to understand the optimal way forward to growing a roundabout program in the Province.
In 1999 roadways in four north east Edmonton neighbourhoods began to show significant structural failures earlier than expected. As a result of continued roadway failures a study was carried out by the City of Edmonton Geotechnical Section of Engineering Services in August 2002 to identify the issue and its extent. The original study and a successive study carried out by Golder Associates in 2005 revealed that water was softening the subgrade soils causing these failures to occur. The issues include subgrade soils that were susceptible to water softening, additional surface drainage from private sump pumps and poor subgrade drainage.
With this information, the City developed several options for remediation of the failed roadways as well as to reduce the availability of water to the subgrade soils. The plan chosen involved full reconstruction of the roadway and installation of edge (periphery) drains. The new roadway cross section consisted of, non-woven geotextile, installation of 200mm diameter perforated PVC lateral drains along curbs on both sides of the road connected to the stormwater system, recycled 63mm granular base, geogrid, virgin granular base course and asphalt concrete. In 2006 the first project with sub-drains was constructed and consisted of approximately 550m of roadway with a cost of approximately $1.5 million.
Over the past ten years the treatment plan has shown to be working to address the issues and the City currently has two annual contracts each completing approximately 1,300 to 1,400m of roadway reconstruction at a cost of approximately $3.0 million dollars per year. In the past ten years the City has completed approximately 14 km of roadways within the neighbourhoods that were part of the original study and has locations for the next three years in place. Many construction techniques have been learned including how to work around utilities, development of drain wells and maintaining access for residents.
Late 2016 additional neighbourhoods were starting to show distresses similar to those reviewed in the study. As such, in 2017 neighbourhoods outside of the original study area will be reconstructed and others that are starting to show earlier signs of similar failures will be monitored regularly through visual inspections and structural testing.
In the context of a literature study for the Ministry of Transportation of Ontario, a survey was conducted on asphalt binder extraction and recovery, with government agencies and research laboratories in the United States, Canada and Europe participating, receiving 40 responses. Respondents from United States Departments of Transportation (DOTs) comprised the majority of responses. The survey covered three categories of test evaluation: apparatus type, performance and safety. The Centrifuge was found to be the most common extraction method, the Rotary Evaporator was found to be the most common method of recovery and Trichloroethylene was found to be the most common solvent. Only two respondents mentioned using bio-sourced solvents. The most common uses for extraction and recovery were for the analysis of RAP binder and the determination of binder content. The determination of binder content was found to be consistent by all of the respondents. About half of the respondents found that the recovered binder properties were modified during extraction and recovery process in a significant way while the others found issues with binder aging and solvent remaining in the binder. Concerns were raised about the testing of RAP and PMA binders, in terms of difficulty in breaking them down. The average extraction and recovery took around 5 hours. Operator safety concerns focused mostly on volatiles and handling at hot temperatures, while environmental safety concerns focused on toxic chemicals and waste disposal. A number of recommendations were provided by the respondents for improving the test methods.
Improving road safety requires two steps of network screening and site diagnosis, which both require safety to be objectively quantified. In the screening phase, sites are identified and prioritized to maximize the efficiency of implemented countermeasures. Network screening methods commonly adopt regression techniques to estimate the expected number of crashes at sites across the network. Most existing techniques use crash-based ranking criteria which are subject to errors and omissions in collision databases, require long collection periods, and are reactive. GPS-enabled smartphones can collect reliable and spatio-temporally rich naturalistic driving data from regular drivers using an inexpensive, simple, and user-friendly tool that eliminates the need for external sensors. To date, very few studies have analyzed large volumes of smartphone GPS probe vehicle data or have considered advanced modelling techniques for screening in large road networks. The purpose of this paper is to develop a crash frequency model that incorporates surrogate safety measures (SSMs) extracted from the smartphones of regular drivers as predictive variables. After processing GPS data collected in Quebec City, Canada, several SSMs including vehicle manoeuvres (hard braking) and measures of traffic flow (congestion, average speed, and speed variation) were extracted. A Latent Gaussian Spatial Model was estimated using the INLA technique. Results showed that while negative binomial models outperformed Poisson models, the greatest improvement in model fit was achieved through a spatial model. In general, the relationships between SSMs and crash frequency established in previous studies were supported by the modelling results. Future work will include expanding the crash model to the entire Quebec City road network, comparing models estimated using INLA to those estimated using a traditional MCMC simulation, and incorporating collision severity estimation. The ability to screen the network based only on SSMs presents a substantial contribution to the field of road safety, and works towards the elimination of crash data in safety evaluation and monitoring.
The roadbuilding industry has been working towards environmental stewardship in many aspects of pavement construction. As an example, almost 100% of reclaimed asphalt pavement is recycled and used in pavement construction. In fact the amount of recycled asphalt pavement used exceeds that of glass, paper, aluminum and plastic combined. Warm mix asphalt represents another advancement with significant environmental advantages, such as reduced fossil fuel costs and less emissions. More recently, two pavement technologies have come to the forefront; permeable pavements and solar pavements.
Permeable pavements offer an enhanced method for managing stormwater. These pavements, generally used for parking lots or other low traffic applications, allow stormwater to drain through the pavement surface into a stone recharge bed (or reservoir) and infiltrate into the soils below the pavement. The surface of a permeable pavement can be specially designed asphalt concrete or Portland cement concrete, or permeable pavers. Advantages include purifying stormwater runoff, and replenishing water tables and aquifers rather than forcing rainfall into storm sewers.
Solar pavements are even a more recent environmental development. Solar pavements (or surfacing) is a modular system of specially engineered solar panels that can be walked and driven upon. In some cases the panels contain LED lights to create lines and signage without paint. They can contain heating elements to prevent snow and ice accumulation. The Netherlands built the first solar road, a bike path, in 2014. France announced a bolder move recently that over the next five years, it plans to install 1,000 kilometres of solar roads. Installations in North America are likely “just around the corner”.
This paper will have the objective of providing a fair, but critical review of these two pavement technologies, specific to the Canadian context. There can be no denying that these innovations have a significant environmental upside; but does that upside come at a cost, a cost that may or may not make good sense?
It is acknowledged that multi-lane roundabouts result in more collisions between users than single-lane roundabouts. Much of this has to do with the fact that multi-lane roundabouts handle more traffic. The safety performance of multi-lane roundabouts should therefore be compared to signalized intersections that accommodate similar traffic flows.
However recent data in the United States and Canada are showing that collision frequency at multi-lane roundabouts is often higher than expected, and sometimes higher than the prior signalized intersection. This trend is worrisome given that roundabouts are often constructed as a means of increasing safety. The good news is that fatal and injury crashes are almost always reduced with roundabouts, even if property-damage-only crashes are not. The bad news is that often only total crashes are reported by a road agency or picked up on by the public. This is starting to foster the impression that multi-lane roundabouts are not all that safe.
Multi-lane roundabouts have tremendous safety potential. Unlike single-lane roundabouts, which are applicable at lower-volume locations, multi-lane roundabouts can all but eliminate the high-speed angle crashes that injure and kill motorists, cyclists and pedestrians at large signalized intersections. But unless the trend toward higher-than-expected collision frequency is reduced, the future of multi-lane roundabouts may be in doubt.
In cold regions, flexible pavements are constantly submitted to the effects of repeated traffic loads combined with the climate effect. The frost heave of the subgrade soils due to formation of ice segregation is among the main mechanism involved in the high deterioration rate of flexible pavement. This paper presents developments of flexible pavement damage models, developed through a multiple linear regression (MLR) analysis, associating long-term roughness performance to degradation mechanisms, such as, among others, frost heave. Those models would be essential to assess the advantages or consequences to have a frost heave lower, equal or higher than the allowable threshold values established by the Ministry of Transportation of Quebec (MTQ) according to the roads functional classification. One of the models developed uses the cracking performance index as a direct quantification of cracking and the other one uses indirect cracking quantification using thickness and age of pavement. This research illustrates that a notable increase in long-term IRI deterioration rate of pavement is usually caused by frost heave, variable subgrade soil and traffic. Obtaining the flexible pavement damage models with the various degradation mechanisms will help to predict and reduce the residual distortions that affect the structural and functional capacities of cold region’s road network.
The Callender Hamilton through truss bridge crosses the Exploits River in Grand Falls-Windsor, NL, and serves as a vital link for both industry and the public in the area. In January 2016, a heavy vehicle struck the bridge’s south portal strut and caused severe damage to several non-redundant truss top chord and diagonal members along with several other secondary members. Harbourside Engineering Consultants (HEC) were retained by Newfoundland and Labrador Department of Transportation and Works (NLDTW) to complete a repair design and procedure, with the mandate being to restore the existing structure’s full inherent capacity while minimizing design time, bridge closure time, and overall project costs. The project involved a number of challenges requiring an innovative and unique solution. Because the damaged elements included non-redundant members, the loads in these members had to be relieved by introducing an alternate load path prior to their replacement. Due to the site geometry, specifically a near-vertical cliff over 20m high directly in front of both abutments, along with cost and schedule restraints, standard repair methods were conceptualized but ultimately deemed impractical. The solution came in the form of an innovative temporary adjustable-length diagonal jacking strut design, whereby jacking struts were strategically located within the existing truss to create an alternate load path which bypassed the damaged members. A complex jacking system within the struts, including a creative sleeve-type slider system to maintain stability of the strut during the jacking procedure, was developed to maintain bridge geometry and relieve load in the existing damaged members prior to their replacement. A structural evaluation of the bridge superstructure was also part of HEC’s scope of work as the live load carrying capacity of the bridge was never verified since its construction in the 1960’s. The structural evaluation concluded that a number of structural elements did not meet Canadian Highway Bridge Design Code (CHBDC) CAN/CSA S6-14 requirements. As such, a combination of bolt material testing (to verify the existing bolt strength properties) and posting axle limits were recommended for the bridge following completion of the vehicle collision repairs. In addition to completing the detailed repair design and procedures, HEC provided an on-site Engineer for supervision and direction during all phases of the repair works, including the critical jacking sequences. The project was ultimately a success, being completed safely, on budget, and just marginally over schedule while meeting the main objective: reinstating the inherent load carrying capacity of the structure.
A concrete open footing culvert located on Ontario Ministry of Transportation (MTO) Highway 21 near Southampton, Ontario, and within the Saugeen First Nation Reserve #29 (see Appendix A), had reached the end of its service life and was in need of replacement. This culvert was perched above the streambed and restricted any upstream fish migration – this has likely been the case since the highway and the culvert were constructed over seventy-five years ago (see Appendix B for pictures of the original culvert). This tributary to the Saugeen River supports a diverse range of coldwater fish species such as Rainbow Trout, and is culturally significant to the community as it is a popular area for fishing. Restoring fish passage upstream of the culvert location was a key objective of this project.
The project team evaluated a number of alternative methods of replacing the culvert. One of the alternatives evaluated required a full closure of the highway to remove the original culvert and place a new culvert in the same location. Closing the two-lane section of road and detouring highway traffic would have had significant negative socio-economic impacts on the First Nation community that relies on Highway 21 as the main road into and out of the Reserve. Through the environmental assessment process it was decided that the original culvert would be left in place, filled in with concrete and capped at both ends. A new culvert would be installed using a ‘jack and bore’ trenchless technology, slightly to the east of the original culvert, allowing the highway above to remain open.
Construction of the new culvert began in summer 2015 and was completed in late fall 2015. A steel pipe culvert was installed beneath the highway, and then a liner with attached fish baffles was slipped inside the pipe. Because the location of the new culvert was shifted slightly to the east of the original culvert, the watercourse at the inlet and outlet of the new culvert required a small shift in alignment. Fish habitat features were then incorporated into the new channel at the inlet and outlet.
Provincial Trunk Highway (PTH) 83 crosses a former landslide along the south slope of the Shell River Valley between Russell and Roblin, MB. To keep the highway open department maintenance staff have had to repair dips in the road caused by relatively slow but ongoing movements of the landslide since it was constructed in 1961. However, two major landslide events in 1999 and 2012 closed the highway for extended periods while it was reconstructed. Engineering studies have not identified economically feasible options to stabilize the landslide or relocate the highway around the landslide.
The traditional geotechnical instrumentation installed to measure landslide movements and groundwater levels has provided valuable information on the nature of the landslide. However, they do not provide an effective method of warning of potentially dangerous landslide movements because the data must be retrieved manually from the site and processed before it can be interpreted. This led to the need for a real-time monitoring system that could provide early warnings of abnormal landslide movements.
In November 2015, Manitoba Infrastructure installed a remote monitoring system at the site to detect landslide movements and provide early warnings of dangerous road conditions. The system consists of two laser distance measuring devices (LDM) and a shape accelerometer array (SAA). The LDMs are mounted on the top of the landslide escarpment and measure distances to targets located in the active part of the landslide. The 25 m deep SAA is positioned between the two LDM targets and measures ground movement to the base of the landslide.
Data is collected every hour and sent to Manitoba Infrastructure’s Winnipeg office where it is automatically processed and uploaded to a website for viewing. The system was designed to send text message and email alerts to notify department maintenance staff of abnormal landslide movements so they can get to the site and assess the road conditions. This paper presents a background of the landslide, and a description and evaluation of the remote monitoring system.
The Project involves a redesign of Yonge Street, in the North York Centre, to become a complete street for the 21st century. Yonge Street is a major north-south arterial road.
The City of Toronto has a vision for Yonge Street, from Sheppard Avenue to Finch Avenue, as one of its primary promenades – a vibrant urban environment that promotes walking, cycling and safe passage across the street. While the North York Centre has been transforming into a transit-oriented and dynamic mixed-use area, the implementation of the vision for the street has not been fully achieved with this evolution. Inconsistent features, including sidewalks, pedestrian crossings and medians, and the lack of dedicated cycling facilities reduce the appeal of the street as a place for urban activity and present transportation challenges. Despite the opportunity created by the two subway lines and other regional transit services, movement by all modes of transportation continues to be an issue.
This environmental assessment study defined and evaluated opportunities to create an attractive multi-purpose promenade for North York Centre. As intensification proceeds in the Yonge Street area, it is important to define a consistent streetscape, in keeping with this goal and the civic nature of North York Centre. There is a need to redesign Yonge Street so that it functions both as an attractive place for urban activities and a street for the movement of people of all ages by all modes and for all trip purposes including work, school and leisure.
As part of Edmonton’s Neighbourhood Renewal Program, the City balances a variety of work including preventative maintenance, overlays and reconstructions. Of the City’s 300 neighbourhoods, approximately 100 require full reconstruction. A long term plan to address these neighbourhoods has been established which is the focus of this paper. This program is unique to Edmonton and is leading the way for neighbourhood renewal in Canada.
From 1995 to 2016, 34 neighbourhoods have been reconstructed and currently there are plans to complete or start reconstruction on more than 60 by 2028. To finance this work various funding sources are utilized including local improvements paid by property owners, general city taxes and other government funding for a total of approximately $100-$120 million dollars per year depending on a specific year’s reconstruction program.
To deliver the neighbourhood construction portion of this program, the City of Edmonton enters into long term contracts with contractors that are typically six years in length consisting of three neighbourhoods per contract. These contracts were developed in consultation with the Alberta Roadbuilders and Heavy Construction Association (ARHCA) and contain clauses that address the fluctuations of rack oil price and other industry pricing within the custom developed Neighbourhood Renewal Price Index (NRPI). To assist in delivering such a large program each year and over the long term, financial incentives through site occupancy assessments are also included in each contract. This ensures that the overall commitments in a neighbourhood are met.
In 2017, there will be work in twelve neighbourhoods through eight active long term contracts and one standalone contract with overall project budgets totaling approximately $120 million. Depending on the size of a neighbourhood, reconstruction will be scheduled over two or three years. The scope of work includes removal and replacement of sidewalks, curb and gutter, streetlights and roadway reconstruction typically through full depth reclamation. Other neighbourhood improvements that consider all modes of transportation are also implemented as part of the program such as missing link sidewalks, bike corridors, school zone safety features and traffic calming measures.
The program provides many benefits to a wide range of stakeholders. This includes the City as a whole through improvement of City assets, residents through improvements directly adjacent to their properties and to their communities and the consultants and contractors involved in the work by providing secure work into the future.
The Province of Alberta uses one of the heaviest design trucks in Canada for the design of its highway bridges. Despite the use of a CL-800 design truck, most of the fatigue damage is caused by the more frequent trucks rather than the heaviest trucks used for design at the ultimate limit states level. The Canadian Highway Bridge Design Code, CSA-S6-14, uses a fatigue design truck with a GVW of 52% of the design truck and a further reduction of 27% is applied when the volume of heavy trucks not more than the greater of 200 trucks per day or 5% of the ADTT. In order to verify whether these fatigue truck factors are still valid for traffic on Alberta highways, a re-calibration of the fatigue truck was conducted using an extensive database of weigh-in-motion data collected from six sites from September 2004 to July 2013. The data collection sites include Highway 2 at Leduc and at Red Deer, Highway 2A at Leduc, Highway 3 at Fort MacLeod, Highway 16 at Edson, and Highway 44 at Villeneuve.
The data processing consisted of filtering the data to eliminate data that were found to be unreliable either because of excessive vehicle speed, unrealistic axle spacing or weights, and light trucks that would not have any impact on the fatigue damage of bridges. Filtering of the raw data resulted in the elimination of about 90% of the collected data at each site. However, approximately 30 million trucks were retained for the calibration of a fatigue truck for Alberta highways.
The calibration of a CL-800 truck was conducted for the double slope fatigue curves defined in CSA-S6- 14 using four different influence lines, namely, the midspan moment of a simply supported span and the moments at midspan of the end span, at the midspan of an interior span and at an interior support of a four span continuous beam. Span lengths from 2 m to 70 m were investigated. The calibration for all six WIM sites indicated that the calibration factor varies with span length, but is essentially constant for span lengths longer than 12 m and decreases significantly for shorter span lengths. Although the results for most WIM sites were similar, the Edson site showed slightly heavier trucks than at the other sites. The trucks at Highway 2A at Leduc (having the lowest traffic volume of all sites) were found to be significantly lighter than at the other sites, resulting in smaller calibration factors for all span lengths.
The calibration of the fatigue truck was conducted for the number of equivalent stress cycles specified in CSA-S6-14. The calibration process supported a fatigue truck factor of 0.52 for bridges with span lengths greater than or equal to 12 m. A linearly variable fatigue truck factor is proposed for spans shorter than 12 m. It was found that the factor CL as presented in CSA-S6-14 is adequate for low traffic roads, although this could be verified at only one location in Alberta.
The Calgary Airport Trail Tunnel is a cut-and-cover, two-cell roadway tunnel constructed under the Calgary International Airport’s runway and three associated taxiways. It is owned by The City of Calgary (The City) and is on land leased from the Calgary Airport Authority (YYC). The structure is a cast-in-place, conventionally reinforced concrete rigid frame on spread footings with two spans of 17 m each and a total length of 620 m. The Tunnel was designed according to the Canadian Highway Bridge Design Code (CHBDC). One of the load cases considered in the design was loading due to temperature effects (including temperature variations and thermal gradient). Based on the CHBDC, the design temperature range for Calgary is from -34 to 38°C. It was discussed during the design stage that the Tunnel, which is a buried structure, may not actually be subjected to this temperature range. The design team could not find any references that addressed temperature ranges inside tunnels.
Another issue raised during the design stage was the necessity for movement joints. Although some references recommend joints as close as 9 m apart, there are tunnels that have been constructed without any joints. To investigate these questions for future designs, it was discussed with The City and it was agreed to put temperature and movement monitors in the tunnel. Wireless sensors were cast into the concrete walls and roof slab at 40 locations to measure temperatures at two surfaces and the mid-depth of each section. Also, surface mounted sensors were installed at two movement joints to monitor the tunnel’s movements.
After providing a summary of the Tunnel and monitoring design, the paper emphasizes the findings from the monitoring program, including:
· Average maximum and minimum temperatures and thermal gradients recorded inside the Tunnel
· Comparisons with temperatures recorded outside the Tunnel at the Calgary Airport
· Comparisons to the design temperature range and gradient provided by CHBDC
· Results obtained from movement sensors.
Assessment of vertical clearance on highways is an integral step to ensuring that design standards are met throughout the service life of the highway. The assessment enables timely intervention, in case clearance requirements are not met, thereby extending the service life of structures and avoiding prohibitive maintenance costs due to damage which could occur to those overhead objects in case of collisions. That being said, before clearance can be assessed at overhead objects, these objects must first be detected, inventoried and classified. Unfortunately, manual procedures to collect such information on highways are unsafe, time consuming, labour intensive and, in some cases, impractical. This is particularly true when information is required on a network-level. This paper proposes a novel technique by which overhead objects could be automatically detected, classified and inventoried using mobile LiDAR data. Moreover, the proposed algorithm also provides an estimate of the clearance at those objects. The technique involves defining the road trajectory of the highway and then using search algorithms to detect overhead structures. Further, the algorithm employs clustering tools to classify the detected structures into different objects (eg: bridges vs power lines). The algorithm also yields an estimate of the clearance all detected overhead objects. The algorithm is tested on two different highway segments at the province of Alberta and was successful in detecting all overhead structures on those highways, and in providing a decent estimate of the clearance at all those structures.
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