| Abstract | From a civil engineering perspective, floating ice covers in cold regions is a readily accessible and cost effective material for transportation infrastructure, notably ice roads, which can be used in areas that would otherwise not be accessible. Because ice roads are floating, they entail risks that other road infrastructures do not have to contend with, namely, that of a breakthrough. In order to better understand what is involved in a safe and cost effective operation of ice roads and other ice-based infrastructure, the physical nature of ice covers (ice type, thickness, temperature, cracking, etc.) and the mechanical properties of that material (elastic modulus, creep behavior) need to be properly assessed. The empirically-derived Gold’s formula provides a first order assessment of bearing strength. The actual usage and the nature of the traffic are also important factors. Ice roads are managed by government bodies or by local communities, or they can be private operations. There are a large number of ice roads in the country – an attempt is currently being made by OCRE to centralize that information and make it available to all stakeholders. |
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