Pumping is one of the major factors contributing toward concrete pavement failures, one which reduces the pavement life, affects road safety, and increases maintenance costs. Existing methods such as nonwoven geotextiles used as drainage systems can drain gravitational (free) water under saturated conditions but not the capillary water under an unsaturated conditions. The objective of this study is to explore and identify the feasibility of using a new wicking geotextile for pumping mitigation in pavement shoulder via laboratory tests and field test section monitoring. Laboratory results showed that soil installed with wicking geotextile was noticeably drier than that with a French drain as a drainage system because the wicking geotextile can drain capillary water. Nearly 3 years of field monitoring verified the effectiveness of using wicking geotextile to reduce water content, especially where the pavement was prone to pumping damage. In addition, exposing the edge of the wicking geotextile to the air further noticeably increased its drainage ability.

At present, the cumulative storage of coal gangue in China exceeds 7 billion tons, covering an area of approximately 70 km². The engineering application of unburned coal gangue is mainly utilized as concrete aggregate or cement production after the overfire process. However, it is prone to environmental pollution and has limited consumption. Using unburned coal gangue as roadbed filling not only alleviates the difficulty of land acquisition and soil collection for road constructions in mining areas, but also consumes a large amount of accumulated unburned coal gangue. This study conducts research on the road performance of unburned coal gangue. A series of laboratory tests have been performed to determine the physical and chemical properties of the unburned coal gangue and its performance as a filling material in cold regions. The influence of compaction effort, clay content, and number of freezing–thawing cycles on the mechanical performance of the unburned coal gangue was investigated. The typical unburned coal gangue in the Heilongjiang region is mainly composed of SiO₂, Al₂O₃, and Fe₂O₃, which accounts for approximately 91% of the total mass. The unburned coal gangue meets the minimum CBR requirement of 8% after 7 freezing–thawing cycles. This study helps fully and reasonably utilize typical unburned coal gangue in the local area, providing technical support for achieving the overall goal of “green development, conservation and intensification, and low-carbon environmental protection”.

Landslide damage to soil graben slopes in seasonal freezing zones is a crucial concern for highway slope safety, particularly in the northeast region of China where permafrost thawing is significant during the spring. The region has abundant seasonal permafrost and mostly comprises powdery clay soil that is susceptible to landslides due to persistent frost and thaw cycles. The collapse of a slope due to thawing and sliding not only disrupts highway operations but also generates lasting implications for environmental stability, economic resilience, and social well-being. By understanding and addressing the underlying mechanisms causing such events, we can directly contribute to the sustainable development of the region. Based on the Suihua–Beian highway graben slope landslide-management project, this paper establishes a three-dimensional finite element model of a seasonal permafrost slope using COMSOL Multiphysics 6.1 finite element numerical analysis software. Additionally, the PDE mathematical module of the software is redeveloped to perform hydrothermal-coupling calculations of seasonal permafrost slopes. The simulation results yielded the dynamic distribution characteristics of the temperature and seepage field on the slope during the F–T process. The mechanism behind the slope thawing and sliding was also unveiled. The findings provide crucial technical support for the rational analysis of slope stability, prevention of sliding, and effective control measures, establishing a direct linkage to the promotion of sustainable infrastructure development in the context of transportation and roadway engineering.

The seasonal variation of unbound material properties is often significant, and water within a pavement structure is a principal cause of pavement deterioration. A small water content increment will result in a significant reduction in soil resilient moduli and a tremendous increment in permanent deformation. Unfortunately, the resilient modulus determined by falling weight deflectometer tests may not be representative, and the conventional enhanced integrated climatic model has its own limitations. This paper aims at numerically simulating the seasonal variations of the resilient behavior of a base course under saturated/unsaturated conditions with the influence of localized climatic conditions. A coupled hydromechanical model with considerations of climatic effect was proposed and calibrated. Then, three case studies were conducted to evaluate the dynamic resilient behavior of the base course under different climatic and working conditions. The suction, water content, and resilient modulus distributions were presented to demonstrate the dynamic resilient behavior of the base course, and the advantages of the proposed model against the enhanced integrated climatic model (EICM) in terms of simulating the moisture migration within pavement structures are discussed.