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Construction in the extreme cold regions becomes one of the important businesses in the world. Geophysical surveys, which are effective in providing consecutive ground information, have been widely applied to the civil engineering and environmental sectors. The permafrost area covers about 14 percent of the world’s land area and the global construction market for such area is rapidly expanding. Where developed countries have already recognized the need for research of the coldest places and therefore have invested heavily in technology development, the non-arctic countries are still developing and related research has rarely been performed. The purpose of this study is to design the GIS (Geophysics Information System) platform for a construction environment with a 2,000 km-class pipeline (overland) operated under the permafrost temperature conditions (−40°C∼+20°C). The GIS platform when subjected to geotechnical engineering provides an understanding of the frozen ground and information about the geo-environment of the extreme cold regions. This paper shows the characteristics and procedures of Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) for developing Arctic resources, and reviews how to construct a system for the systematic management of the necessary information to consider building the GIS platform. In addition, this study introduces the GIS algorithm to build the route for the pipeline path, and factors which should be considered first are safety, environment, economic feasibility and technical feasibility.

Cold regions, such as Alaska, Russia and Canada, get attention from many countries due to the tremendous amount of natural resources which are buried there. An accurate evaluation of the frozen ground is very important because the behavior of the active layer is greatly affected by the soil characteristics and water content in the active layer. It is necessary for developing a construction technology for pipelines in cold regions. This study has two objectives: 1) First one is to evaluate the characteristics of a newly-produced insulated aggregate and 2) the other one is to check the applicability of insulated aggregate. A series of laboratory experiments (specific gravity test, sieve analysis test, direct shear test, test for abrasion of coarse and aggregates by use of the Los Angeles machine) were performed to estimate the characteristics of the newly-produced insulated aggregate. In addition, the laboratory chamber tests were carried out to evaluate the applicability of frozen soil behavior using the newly-produced insulated aggregate. The chamber tests were conducted to check the laboratory model surrounded by soil mixing the insulated aggregate and ordinary soil in order to prevent the damage of structures such as pipelines due to the ground being frozen. For the laboratory chamber tests, the extreme cold engineering laboratory was built within the Yeon Cheon SOC Demonstration Research Center, of the Korea Institute of Construction Technology. The performance of the frozen ground which was installed with the insulated aggregate using vinyl was evaluated through monitoring the time-dependent distribution of temperature and earth-pressure.

Due to the recent climate change, the colder and longer winter is expected in Korea. Besides, the recent participation agreement on the development of the natural gas pipeline in Russia and construction of the second Korean Antarctic research station, the Jangbogo station changes the research interests from the seasonally frozen ground to the permafrost ground. The recent development of the site investigation techniques using wave propagation and electrical resistivity enabled engineers to evaluate the physical properties of the frozen soils and further correlate them to the mechanical properties. However, the physical properties of the frozen ground change when the water in the soil solidifies to ice; this change is particularly notable between 0 and −10°C. Therefore, the physical property changes due to freezing needs to be investigated in terms of wave propagation characteristics and electrical resistivity with regard to the various freezing temperatures. In this study, the characteristics of wave propagation and electrical resistivity of frozen soils are investigated under various sub-zero temperatures. The characteristics of wave propagations are analyzed in terms of compression and shear wave velocities. The electrical resistivity is measured under various sub-zero temperatures to understand the effects of ice, which will further provide the valuable information about the location of the active layer. Furthermore, the evaluated physical properties can be used as basic data for the evaluation of the mechanical properties such as strength and stiffness.Copyright © 2014 by ASME

Temperature monitoring along the depth in construction site of the Jangbogo Antarctic research station (74° 37′S, 164° 12′E) was carried out. The thermal behavior of the frozen ground was investigated. The temperatures were measured during site investigation from February 07, 2011 to February 12, 2011. The temperature profile was analyzed in the frozen ground. The results show that the increase along with the depth. This study demonstrates that the temperature profile obtained at this site could be effective reference for the construction of the research station in the Antarctic.Copyright © 2012 by ASME

The second scientific Antarctica station of South Korea is under construction at Terra Nova Bay located in east Antarctica. The objective of this study is the evaluation of the frost heave susceptibility of soils sampled from the second station site by performing laboratory frost heaving tests. Experiments are carried out with the soil specimens taken from five different areas at Terra Nova Bay. Test specimens are frozen with constant temperatures at the top and bottom of the specimen at −17 °C and 4 °C, respectively. In addition, grain size analyses and unfrozen water tests are also performed for monitoring the characteristics of the water contained in the permafrost. Frost susceptibility is evaluated by standard methods recommended in UK, US and Japan. Experimental results show that the more the fine contents exist in soils, the more frost heave occurs. The result denotes that grain size has a significant effect on frost heave. The results suggest that the frost heaving susceptibility of the frozen ground at the Antarctic site would be effectively evaluated through the grain size and the frost heaving parameters.