This paper provides an outlook on the effects of climate change and the severity and frequency of extreme weather events on the performance of flexible pavements across North America. Now more than ever, the climate is changing at a rapid pace, which will alter long-term environmental loading parameters and extreme weather events. Such alterations will pose implications for the design, maintenance, and rehabilitation of flexible pavements, especially in terms of their serviceability, safety, and functionality. In northern Canada, roads are founded on various terrain types, including thaw-sensitive ice-rich permafrost underlying terrains. Such roads have experienced signs of embankment and pavement damage, which are usually induced by the degradation of the underlying permafrost due to climate change. Therefore, the development and implementation of new permafrost thaw mitigation techniques for vulnerable roads are essential and will be discussed in this paper. Resilient flexible roads should be designed to withstand the conditions that are likely to occur during their design life, taking into account the impact of the climate change on pavement performance in response to daily and seasonal changes in heat, precipitation, freeze-thaw cycles, and extreme weather events.

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Canada’s climate is warming at a rate about double the global average, leading to potential negative impacts on public infrastructures such as Jointed Plain Concrete Pavement (JPCP). In light of this reality of changing climate, the work contained in this paper is aimed at evaluating JPCP’s early-age behavior in response to environmental conditions. HIPERPAV® software and the associated models developed by the U.S. Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) were used to identify cracking potential. A sensitivity analysis was performed to assess the effect of different levels of air temperature, mix temperature, base layer temperature, wind speed and relative humidity. Additionally, projected extreme temperatures predicted by Canadian Regional Climate Model (CanRCM) were used to determine the relative impact of climate change on cracking risk. The results demonstrated the increased cracking risk under changing climate in several Canadian cities by mid-century and highlighted the importance of developing a pathway forward for climate adaptation.

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Asphalt's self-healing properties demonstrate the capability to partially or even fully restore the damage caused by external loads, which could be improved using innovative modifying materials. In this study, the impact of nanoclays on asphalt performance grading, complex shear modulus, and self-healing properties are investigated on a laboratory scale. The intrinsic healing phenomenon of the analyzed binders is measured using a two-piece healing test. Prepared by high shear mixing, the modified binders containing different dosages of two types of organo-modified montmorillonites were evaluated in this paper. In addition to the Superpave performance grading, the dispersion method's effectiveness was analyzed using a Scanning Electron Microscope. This study indicates that nanoclays improve the high-temperature performance grade of the binder while they do not hinder the low-temperature performance. Finally, nanomodified binders showed higher shear strength and improved self-healing properties compared to unmodified binders.