Degradation of agricultural lands due to soil salinity is one of the greatest environmental problems in Australia. However, the effects of salinity on roads have not been thoroughly investigated or described and the fact that there are major gaps in knowledge of the causes, effects and extent of salinity damage to roads prevents the development of a realistic risk assessment and/or risk management strategy. Austroads recently sponsored a technical research project Managing the Impacts of Rising Watertables and Salinity on Pavement Performance. The desirable deliverables were tools to assist road authorities to identify those sections of road that are at risk of damage due to rising watertables and associated salinity issues and guidelines for solutions (design and treatments) that could be used to address the problem. This paper describes the conduct of the project, the work conducted (including a field trial at Forbes NSW), the evaluation of the findings and recommendations for further work. (a) For the covering entry of this conference, please see ITRD abstract no. E217099.
Samenvatting