USUCGER: NGES Adds Alaskan Permafrost Site

[Jean Benoit]

Farmer's Loop Road Site Dedicated to Permafrost Research 

FAIRBANKS, ALASKA-The U.S. Army Engineer Research and Development Center's
(ERDC) Cold Regions Research and Engineering Laboratory (CRREL) and the
National Geotechnical Experimentation Sites' (NGES) Geo Council have
partnered to advance permafrost research in soils. Members of ERDC and the
GeoCouncil celebrated with a Farmer's Loop Road dedication ceremony on Sept.
23, in Fairbanks, Alaska. With the addition of the Farmers Loop Road site,
the NGES Program now has seven sites available to the geo-community to
advance the state-of-the-art in the areas of in-situ field testing, field
instrumentation, prediction of soil behavior and foundation prototype
testing.

The United States Army Engineer Research and Development Center's Cold
Regions Research and Engineering Laboratory (CRREL) owns and maintains the
Farmer's Loop Road site which consists of 135 acres of ice-rich permafrost
soils, making it ideal for testing the response of piling and other
foundations to permafrost creep and frost-jacking. Geotechnical and
transportation research has been conducted at this site since the late
1940s. Past projects have included experimental permafrost foundations, the
measurement of frost heave forces on piles, long-term influence of
vegetation on permafrost stability, experimental road surfaces, insulation
of roads and thawing of permafrost by passive solar means.    

The point of contact for research to be conducted at Farmer's Loop Road is
Karen Henry, Karen.S.Henry@erdc.usace.army.mil

 

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://list.mail.virginia.edu/pipermail/usucger/attachments/20031028/98a3f062/attachment.html