Impact of climate change on road infrastructure.
| Commissioned Report | Category: general transport, environment and energy |
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There is an increasing body of evidence that the earth's climate is changing with some of the changes attributable to human activities. Climate change can have direct and indirect impacts on road infrastructure. The direct impacts are due to the effects of the environment. Rainfall changes can alter moisture balances and influence pavement deterioration. In addition, temperature can affect the aging of bitumen resulting in an increase in embrittlement of the surface chip seals that represent more than 90% of the rural sealed roads in Australia. Embrittlement of the bitumen causes the surface to crack, with a consequent loss of waterproofing of the surface seal. The result is that surface water can enter the pavement causing potholing and fairly rapid loss of surface condition. More frequent reseal treatments will ameliorate the problem, but at a cost to road agencies. Changes in temperature and rainfall patterns can interact where higher temperatures increase cracking, which compounds the effects of increased rainfall. This study examines changes in road agency costs as a result of projected climate changes, both temperature and rainfall.  Impact of climate change on road infrastructure. [8124 KB]Feedback Not available in hard copy |
