Highway Roadway Stability Influenced by Warm Permafrost and Seasonal Frost Action: A Case Study from Glennallen, Alaska, USA

Ground temperatures from four of the seven extensively studied highway cross-sections near Gulkana/Glennallen, Alaska during 1954~1962, were chosen to better understand the impacts of highway construction on warm permafrost. Both the thawing of permafrost and seasonal frost action impacted on road surface stability for about 6 years until the maximum summer thaw reached about 3 m in depth. Seasonal frost action caused most of the ensuing stability problems. Unusually warm summers and the lengths of time required to re-freeze the active layer were far more important than the average annual air temperatures in determining the temperatures of the underlying shallow permafrost, or the development of taliks. The hypothesized climate warming would slightly and gradually deepen the active layer and the developed underlying talik, but its effect would be obscured by unusually warm summers, by warmer than usual winters, and by the variable lengths of time of the zero curtains. At least one period of climate mini-cooling in the deeper permafrost during the early 20th century was noted.