In August 2012, the City of Mississauga was looking to repair a left hand turn lane at the intersection of Courtney Park Dr. and Kennedy Rd. The intersection had severe rutting and, reviewing the City’s previous repairs, the flexible pavement wasn’t standing up to road traffic. The City had fixed the intersection in 2007 and 2010 and planned to repair it again in 2012 with asphalt. The asphalt already had up to 100-mm (4-inches) of rutting in just 2 years. The relatively high traffic volume made it imperative to complete the repair in as short a time as possible. Given the City’s specification for concrete pavement stating that concrete requires 72 hours prior to opening to traffic, the City had concerns with repairing it in concrete. A life cycle cost assessment(LCCA) for asphalt and concrete pavement options that also considered the time required for the initial construction and all future maintenance activities was conducted. To address the total lane closure time, maturity methods were used to determine the strength of the concrete before opening. The environmental impact of the maintenance cycles for the concrete and asphalt options was calculated using Athena Institute Life Cycle Impact Estimator for Highways, which evaluates the various materials and equipment used in the construction to calculate the total “cradle to grave” environmental impact of the pavement. Following completion of these assessments, the intersection was repaired with concrete. Based on the success of this project, the City of Mississauga will now be considering concrete for other intersections.
