The investigation of environmental impacts of 16 different contaminants originating from the E18 Highway (17 000 AADT) were carried out over the first six months of the highway‘s operational life. Investigative methods used include electrical resistivity surveying, water chemistry analyses, soil analyses, distribution modelling and transportation modelling. The investigation shows conclusively a year round infiltration due to melting of the snowpack from road salt, and a strong preferential anthropogenic pathway due to in-creased hydraulic conductivities of the road building materials relative to the natural soils. The resistivity surveys show values well below the expected values for the highway materials, indicating increased ionic content of the unsaturated zone. Time lapse resistivity modelling shows a clear downwards spreading of contamination from the roadway to subsurface distances greater than 5 m. Elevated concentrations of nearly every contaminant relative to baseline values were observed, with many concentrations of metals in the snow pack averaging values in excess of Swedish EPA groundwater limitations. Distribution modelling demonstrated a potential offset of peak values from the road surface due to ploughing and splash transport processes, but otherwise conformed to established distribution patterns. One dimensional transport modelling demonstrated the importance of adsorption and other retentive factors to the migration of contaminants to the water table, and provided an estimate for potential long term contaminant concentrations.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:UPSALLA1/oai:DiVA.org:kth-96291 |
| Date | January 2011 |
| Creators | Earon, Robert |
| Publisher | KTH, Mark- och vattenteknik |
| Source Sets | DiVA Archive at Upsalla University |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Student thesis, info:eu-repo/semantics/bachelorThesis, text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Rights | info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess |
| Relation | TRITA-LWR Degree Project, 1651-064X ; LWR EX-11-21 |
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