Nordicana D89 / DOI : 10.5885/45708CE-073B968F9A2B496E

Ground and air temperature under two sheds along the Alaska Highway at the Beaver Creek Road Experimental Site, Yukon, Canada

Daniel Fortier ^1,2, Michel Sliger ², Samuel Gagnon ^1,2, Karine Rioux ^1,2
¹Université de Montréal
²Centre d’études nordiques, Université Laval, Québec, Canada

Abstract

To assess the impact of two sheds used to limit permafrost warming and degradation on a road embankment, soil surface and air temperatures were recorded with iButton sensors from June 2011 to November 2017 along the Alaska Highway at the Beaver Creek Road Experimental Site (BC-RES), Yukon, Canada. The two sheds were located on both sides of the road (northern shed and southern shed) on the embankment slope and measured 30 m x 15 m x 1 m (LxWxH). Four iButton sensors were suspended from the roof with a rope and positioned 20-50 cm above the ground surface at the center of the sheds, 3-4 meters apart widthwise . For soil surface temperature, 15 and 13 iButton sensors were buried 10 cm (±5 cm) deep for the southern and northern sheds, respectively. The buried iButton sensors were positioned to measure soil surface temperature at both the center and periphery of the sheds. Ground temperature was also recorded at depth at the center of the southern shed in a borehole with thermistors located between 0.1 m and 15.3 m. The borehole is located at the center of the slope of the embankment (YG6). Measurements were made every 4h from 2 October 2008 to 12 January 2019. WARNING: Some borehole values are corrupted and do not indicate accurate values after July 2015, especially for depths 2.8 m and below.

Data citation

Fortier, D., Sliger, M., Gagnon, S., Rioux, K. 2021. Ground and air temperature under two sheds along the Alaska Highway at the Beaver Creek Road Experimental Site, Yukon, Canada, v. 1.0 (2008-2019). Nordicana D89, doi: 10.5885/45708CE-073B968F9A2B496E.

Location map

Key references

Malenfant-Lepage J, Doré G, Fortier D. Thermal Effectiveness of the Mitigation Techniques Tested at Beaver Creek Experimental Road Site Based on a Heat Balance Analysis: Yukon, Canada. In: Proceedings from 15th International Conference on Cold Regions Engineering, Québec, Canada, 2012:42-51.

Malenfant-Lepage, J., Doré, G., Fortier, D., Murchison, P. (2012) Thermal performance of the permafrost protection techniques at Beaver Creek experimental road site, Yukon, Canada. Proceedings of the 10th International Conference on Permafrost, June 25-29, Salekhard, Russia, Vol. 1: 261-266.

Stephani, E., Fortier, D., Shur, Y., Fortier, R., Doré, G., Walsh, R. (2014) A geosystems approach to permafrost investigations for engineering applications, an example from a road stabilization experiment, Beaver Creek, Yukon, Canada. Cold Region Science and Technology, Vol. 100: 20-35. DOI: 10.1016/j.coldregions.2013.12.006.

Acknowledgements

We thank Yukon Highways and Public Works for giving access to the study site and to the data. We also thank Transport Canada for funding this project and the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada for its financial support.