Calgary Airport Trail Tunnel Temperature Monitoring

The Calgary Airport Trail Tunnel (CATT) is a 620-m-long roadway tunnel constructed under the Calgary International Airport’s (YYC’s) new parallel runway and three associated taxiways owned by The City of Calgary (The City) on land leased from YYC. The CATT was designed according to the Canadian Highway Bridge Design Code (CHBDC). The question arose during the design stage if the tunnel, which is a buried structure, would be subjected to the same temperature effects (range and gradient) given in CHBDC for bridges. To investigate this question for future designs, a system of wireless sensors was installed in the CATT to monitor temperatures with data being collected remotely. The paper includes an overall explanation of the CATT’s design, temperature monitoring instrumentation, and initial findings, including comparisons with temperatures recorded outside the tunnel, and the temperature range and differential provided by the CHBDC.