The Tibbitt to Contwoyto Ice Road, situated north of Yellowknife in Canada's Northwest Territories is the world's longest heavy haul ice road. This ice road carries more than 8,000 truck loads annually of various axle configurations during a haul season restricted to mid- January through mid-April. Similar to its unfrozen counterpart, the load bearing capacity and ice sheet performance of this road are influenced by the frozen structure and composition and the structure beneath the ice sheet. As global warming trends are expected to continue, the construction and maintenance of these frozen haul routes will become more and more difficult requiring better engineering decisions. Although the frozen roadway disappears each spring, the effective management of this infrastructure asset is critical to the exploration and mining operations along its route. This paper presents the recent development of innovative non-destructive ice sheet measurement and assessment technologies allowing comprehensive ice sheet characterization and performance modeling. Research undertaken since 2005 seeks to advance GPR technology, advance the understanding of the relationship between ice dielectric measured at microwave frequencies and its relationship to in-situ ice properties and the identification of internal ice defects. For the covering abstract of this conference see ITRD number E216597.
Abstract