T0579 Asset resilience of asphalt surfaced pavements (roads, footways and cycle tracks)

The project aims to review and respond to key risks for pavement assets linked to climate change and the emerging trend of longer, heavier goods vehicles. Acute weather events of the past few years and projections of future climate indicate what the SRN's pavement asset will need to withstand to offer the same level of service to customers going forwards, and these have been assimilated as high-level potential risks. Net zero objectives are already prompting discussion of how road-based freight can be made more efficient, whether that is through adoption of new powertrains that might necessitate accommodation of heavy batteries as part of the unladen vehicle weight, or by transporting greater payloads in a single journey.

Both future climate and future vehicle characteristics are likely to require adaptations to current approaches used to design, build and maintain the pavement asset.