Grant: Research Tools and Instruments

Our aging transportation infrastructure requires transportation agencies to spend millions of dollars every year on pavement maintenance and rehabilitation activities. Nationwide, Canada has over 1,000,000 km of road including over 30,000 km of highway, where the major part of this network is paved with asphalt materials. While construction technologies have evolved during the past several decades, cracking is still the most prevalent deterioration mode of pavements. Traffic loading, climatic conditions, and quality of asphalt material majorly contribute to the performance of pavements. In light of the recent breakthroughs in material sciences and engineered materials technology, innovative materials can be developed to achieve better durability and ultimately save huge amounts of tax payers money which currently has to be spent on repairing deteriorated pavements (i.e., cracks, potholes, etc.). At the University of Waterloo, researchers are working on world-leading research program to fully exploit the potentials of using innovative smart materials such as self-healing asphalt concrete mixes, high-performance asphalt through nanomodification, phase-change materials, bio-based sustainable materials, and several other innovative alternative construction materials with significant enhanced properties. Researchers from the Civil and Environmental Engineering Department at the University of Waterloo are collaborating with national and international institutions on innovative and sustainable approaches to promote the safety, economy, and quality of the paved roadway network in Canada and internationally. Professor Baaj, the director of the Centre for Pavement and Transportation Technology (CPATT), chairs the crack-healing of asphalt pavement materials committee of the International Union of Laboratories and Experts in Construction Materials, Systems and Structures. This NSERC funding provides the researchers with a greatly enhanced ability to design sustainable, more durable roadways in Canada, resulting in substantial benefits to society in terms of reduced life-cycle costs and energy consumption.