Transportation
A full library of resources that are specific to concrete transportation.
Seasonal Loads
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SLR: Environmental Impact
Transportation yields the greatest amount of air pollutants. Every additional kilometer driven by ready mixed concrete trucks forced to make additional trips because of Seasonal Load Restriction, contributes to increased GHG and air contaminants. The RMCAO study estimates an 800% increase in number of truck trips, fuel used and GHG and CO2 emissions when the current seasonal load restrictions of 5,000kg/axle are in force.
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SLR: Damage to Roads
Potholes, fatigue cracking and rutting are common signs of the distress of a road under repeated traffic loading. This is because each road is built differently and during the spring thaw process roads can lose their structural integrity. Seasonal Load Restrictions are put in place in order to protect roads from damage caused by excess weight from commercial vehicles during the spring thaw cycle.
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SLR: Concrete Trucks
Concrete trucks have a one-of-a–kind configuration that reduces infrastructure and environmental impacts. Today’s concrete trucks axle, tire and engine configuration did not exist when the original studies related to road damage during spring conditions were done 40 years ago.
Trucks used in the concrete industry are unique – only delivering product to a project for initial construction. The perishable nature of concrete also means that the distance travelled is relatively short compared to other heavy trucks.
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SLR Overview
Potholes, fatigue cracking and rutting are common signs of the distress of a road under repeated traffic loading. This is because each road is built differently and during the spring thaw process roads can lose their structural integrity. Seasonal Load Restrictions are put in place in order to protect roads from damage caused by excess weight from commercial vehicles during the spring thaw cycle.
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RMCAO Seasonal Load Restriction Toolkit
A Seasonal Load Restriction (SLR) refers to the regional or municipal enforcement of the amount of a weight a commercial motor vehicle can carry on certain roads between set dates during the spring time. The maximum weight a commercial truck can carry during such periods, is 5,000 kilograms per axle, if enforced by a region or municipality.
SLR’s are typically enforced through regional and municipal Traffic By-laws in an attempt to preserve and protect regional and municipal roads from damage during the freeze thaw or spring thaw cycle. In the spring as roads begin to thaw, the road base becomes saturated with water whereby it loses its structural integrity, reducing the road’s strength and bearing capacity.
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ARA SLR: Pavement Damage Report
The purpose of this study is to assess the potential damage to municipal road pavements in Ontario for the currently required load restriction axle weight limits as well as the anticipated increase in pavement damage that would be experienced if the load limits were increased during the traditional spring load restriction timeframe.
The premise behind spring load restrictions is that spring environmental conditions can cause softening of the roadway subgrade, reducing its resilient modulus and therefore its overall load carrying capacity. For flexible pavements, the reduction in subgrade strength can increase the amount of bending of the asphalt concrete layer resulting in an increase in fatigue type cracking. Choices to prevent damage include building the pavement thicker to be able to resist pavement damage during the spring (e.g. the 400 series highways and many secondary highways in Ontario) or post load restrictions to reduce the impact of vehicle loading during spring conditions
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