INTRODUCTION TO CONCRETE

PAVEMENTS
 Requirements of a pavement
An ideal pavement should meet the following requirements:
Sufficient thickness to distribute the wheel load stresses to a
safe value on the sub-grade soil,
Structurally strong to withstand all types of stresses imposed
upon it,
Adequate coefficient of friction to prevent skidding of vehicles,
Smooth surface to provide comfort to road users even at high
speed,
Produce least noise from moving vehicles,
Dust proof surface so that traffic safety is not impaired by
reducing visibility,
Impervious surface, so that sub-grade soil is well protected,
and
Long design life with low maintenance cost.
 Concrete Roads and Their
Development
In the road pavements, to effectively serve under
different traffic and weather conditions, besides
asphalt or concrete designs, composite designs
using both materials were developed that could.
Among these designs, the pavements constructed
with only cement concrete are called concrete
roads.
Concrete pavements provide good quality service
in city roads and other road sections under
middle- and heavy-traffic loads.
 Main difference of concrete roads from flexible asphalt
pavement is that they are rigid structures [8].
Therefore, concrete pavements transfer smaller loads
to the natural soil layer as compared to the flexible
pavements.
Thus, thickness of a rigid pavement is determined
independently of the soil conditions. Concrete
pavements can be separated into four different groups
according to design specifications such as jointly
unreinforced, jointly reinforced, continuously
reinforced and composite reinforced [9].
History of Concrete Roads
 In the history, concrete pavements were used first time in the city
of Sydney in Australia on roads carrying heavy-traffic loads [10].
In the United States, first concrete road test section was
constructed in a street in the town of Bellefontaine, Ohio in 1891.
After the success of this first trial, construction of concrete roads
was taken into consideration in many cities in the United States.
Though initially designed for only for horse-drawn carriages,
concrete roads gained more importance, and construction of better
quality concrete roads became necessary after the start of mass
production of automobiles in 1909.
7
 The first concrete highway was constructed in the US in
state of Arkansas in 1913, which was a total of length
38.6 m. Significant progress in the design and
construction of the concrete roads was achieved after
1930s, which led them to be constructed faster as well
as more economical and long-lasting [11].
During this period, construction of concrete roads was
started in Germany, to reduce unemployment and
provide quick transportation of the military services
and heavy vehicles.
Concrete highways were also constructed in Belgium
and France in the same period [12].
 Since the mid-1950s, concrete roads has played
important role in the construction of interstate
highway system in the United States. Today, 60% of the
about 75,000 km interstate highway system is made up
with concrete roads particularly in urban areas under
the heavy vehicle loads due to their longer life [13].
Similarly, about 25% of a total of 12,000 km existing
motorways are concrete roads in Germany [14]. In
addition, there are also concrete roads in Japan, China,
India and Azerbaijan in Asia [9].
 Characteristics of Concrete Roads

The comparison of concrete roads with the

most common asphalt roads can be done
around certain characteristics. Though it is not
very easy to distinguish the impact of each
single characteristic alone, they can be divided
into three major groups.
 Economical aspects are mostly the major decision
criteria starting with the initial construction
cost.
As the decision making mechanisms lean more
towards the asset management approach,
service time and life cycle costs must also be
evaluated with the initial cost.
However, any evaluation of these economic
aspects eventually comes to comparison of
asphalt and cement production costs at a
country, which may vary from country to country.
12
 A second group characteristics include construction,
maintenance and repair issues.
Here, the most critical one is of course the duration
required to construct, repair, and maintain the
infrastructure.
This can be as vital as the economic aspects, especially
for the upgrading of existing infrastructures, which has
a certain level of traffic to serve.
In this category, availability of the materials may have
some importance, which can influence decision making
procedure.
 Climatic conditions are major forces damaging
road pavements, thus creating repair and
maintenance demand.
Similarly, durability of the pavement type can
affect the repair requirements and service life,
thus indirectly affect life cycle costs.
There are other aspects which seem more minor
in the current evaluations of infrastructure
comparisons, such as fuel costs, emissions, rider
comfort, breaking distance and night visibility,
etc. -
15
 Although not listed directly, being among the
main input parameters of the pavement design
process, composition of the traffic and heavy
vehicle percentage are major factors that
contribute to the decision among different
pavement types indirectly.
The dynamic loads due to heavy vehicles and high
traffic volumes definitely correlate with the
durability and repair needs of the pavement,
thus, contribute to the life cycle costs, directly.
 As mentioned above, it is not possible to
discuss all these aspects without considering
their reflection on the others; nevertheless,
the available literature on the aforementioned
characteristics of the concrete roads will be
reviewed briefly below, with emphasizing on
the validity for Turkey and comparative status
with respect to asphalt pavements, as much
as.
 Economic Aspects

Developing countries are often select asphalt

roads as the initial cost of concrete roads
seem higher. But, this situation may be
changing in the recent years.
 A study in Turkey in 1998 compared the construction
cost of concrete and asphalt roads were compared for
poor soils (CBR 3%) and solid soils (CBR 10%) for
different traffic volumes.
The initial cost of concrete roads was found lower than
asphalt pavement designs in all traffic conditions,
especially in the poor soils.
In solid soils, initial cost of asphalt pavement road was
lower for low traffic volumes, but, as the traffic
volumes and percentage of heavy vehicle increases
concrete road designs were more economic [10].
 Two recent studies in Turkey concluded there
was not that much difference between the
initial construction costs of concrete and
asphalt pavements; and concrete pavements
were found more economical than asphalt
ones as the traffic volume of the road
increased [15,16].
 Besides the initial construction cost, concrete
roads are more long-lasting. Concrete roads
can serve at least 30 years before major
rehabilitation.
Previously, it was common to design concrete
pavements for 30 years.
Today, concrete pavements can be designed
up to 50 years [17].
 On the other hand, asphalt roads require maintenance in
every three to five years, and after 17 years of construction,
more frequent major maintenance become compulsory
[18].
Furthermore, Life Cycle Cost Analysis (LCCA) of concrete
pavement revealed that concrete roads are economical
options in many cases of the equivalent design
characteristics [19].
In 2011, according to an LCCA performed in Ireland
considering the 40-year service life, concrete roods seemed
economic for the traffic sections where daily average traffic
volume per lane is higher 14,000 vehicles [20].
 Another study mentioned that concrete roads
are preferred for roads with daily commercial
vehicle traffic over 5,000 [21].
Construction, Maintenance and Repair
Aspects
A major issue about the construction of road is the availability of
the road materials. The asphalt production in Turkey is carried in 4
refinery plants.
In 2012, the total crude oil supply of these plants was given as 22.1
million tons, out of which only 2.7 million-tons (12.4%) was
domestic production.
For the same year, total amount of domestic sales reached up to
19.6 million tons, 14.4% (2.8 million tons) was bitumen [23].
These numbers themselves show the import dependency of any oil
product in Turkey, including asphalt binding materials.
Another disadvantage of this dependency reflected on the
construction of the road network is the price volatility of asphalt
material over the years.
 The local price of the bitumen showed a great
increased (more than two folds) in Turkish Lira
(TL) values in the last five years.
Checking the average TL currency in the period, it
is easy to see that the main reason is the change
of the exchange rates.
However, a simple conversion of the local prices
with the exchange rates of the time, it is possible
to see the increase of bitumen prices in US dollar
equivalence [24].
 In terms of the material availability for concrete roads, with the
recent advancements in ready-mix concrete sector, the key issue
would be the supply of cement as the main liability, not the
concrete.
The availability of cement production facilities (grinding plants and
cement factories), is more distributed throughout the country.
More importantly, Turkey is the leading cement producing country
in Europe and among the top 8 countries in the world.
TCMA (Turkish Cement Manufacturers Association) statistics for
2012 showed that the total cement production capacity in Turkey
was around 108.4 million tons and utilization rates among the
TCMA member factories were around 60%.
This situation does not suggest a major material availability
problem or reliability for construction and sustainability of concrete
roads in Turkey [25].
 During construction phase, concrete roads are less
affected by seasonal effects.
Asphalt cannot be cast in wet and moisture conditions.
On the other hand, moisture and wet conditions at the
base surface is desired property to provide better
interlocking during the construction of concrete roads.
Asphalt material should be poured at high
temperatures (125 C) and compacted quickly with
cylinders without be allowed cool.
However, as the concrete is compacted by vibrators,
there is no need such a temperature requirement [26].
 As mentioned before, concrete pavements
transfer smaller loads to the natural soil layer
as compared to the flexible pavements.
Therefore, the deteriorations that may occur
in the natural soil may show their effects on
the surface of the asphalt pavement, more
easily.
As a result, concrete pavements are more
durable under heavy loads [26].
 According to a study conducted in Canada by
AASHTO, 61% of the deteriorations and
damages on the asphalt pavements occur
during the spring melt my period compared to
5.5% for concrete.
Therefore, load restrictions are introduced to
prevent deteriorations by heavy duty trucks in
spring in some regions of Canada [18].
 Concrete roads do not have rutting deformation.
As a result of repetitive stop-and-go movement of
heavy vehicles, bumps and ruts can be seen on
the surface of asphalt roads.
Furthermore, deteriorations may also occur in
the corners and intersections of asphalt surfaces.
Concrete roads protects their original surface
under all these conditions and do not deform
[18].
 Having more durability, and less deterioration due to
soil and climatic conditions, concrete road generate
less maintenance and repair work in their service lives.
But, requirements of repair work on concrete roads are
more challenging due to some aspects.
Cutting and cleaning of the damaged sections require
more effort.
Secondly, it is not possible to open a recently cast
concrete road segment to traffic as quickly as asphalt
roads.
However, recent studies focus on developing new
techniques to overcome these challenges.
 2.2.3 Other Aspects

In terms of safety, vehicles have shorter braking distance on

the concrete roads, as friction coefficient of concrete is
greater than asphalt.
According to a study by the University of Illinois braking
distance on the concrete roads was shorter than on asphalt
for a vehicle travelling at 100 km/h vehicle speed, especially
when asphalt is wet and rutted [18].
In addition, while accumulated water on the surface of the
concrete pavement flows away easier, on the asphalt
pavement it effect like a water slide threatening drive
safety.
Freezing of remaining water on the surface road in cold
weather is another problem that may arise [8].
 In another safety aspect, concrete roads are
lighter and absorb less from headlights and
increase visibility [18].
In wet conditions, concrete roads prevent
dangerous reflections of headlight beams, which
provide better conditions for driving safety [27].
This results in less energy usage for lighting
concrete roads [28]. A study showed that a start-
up and costs maintenance costs to illuminate
concrete roads can be up to 31% lower than
asphalt roads [29].
 Another aspect would be fuel consumption
savings on concrete roads.
Studies starting from 1980s showed that fuel
consumption of trucks on concrete road are
lower (even up to 20%) compared to asphalt ones
[18, 30].
This can be explained by the fact that heavy
vehicles create more deformations on asphalt
pavements, which cause more energy
consumption, thus more fuel consumption [8]. -
See more at:
 A major non-cost characteristic is the differences in the
driving comfort.
A few study showed that riding comfort index on new
asphalt road may be higher than or equal to that of the
concrete road at the beginning; but, after a short period of
time, the asphalt roads show rapid deterioration and lose
this advantage quickly.
It can be said that the concrete road maintains its driving
comfort and its original smoothness longer [31, 32].
However, when the rider comfort in terms of noise level is
considered, jointly reinforced concrete roads produce
periodical sounds at the joint transition points, which
adversely affect ride comfort [9].
 A study revealed that the concrete roads produced, on
average, 2 to 4 decibels more noise than the asphalt
roads.
However, according to the U.S. Environment
Protection Agency, noise differences less than 5
decibels are not considered significant [31].
Another study in the United Kingdom showed that
participants who were listened to the same level of the
noises coming from the asphalt and concrete roads,
found the concrete roads noisier, a behavior which was
explained as reflection of their subjective perception
[33].
 Development of Highway Network in
Turkey
As a result of gained acceleration in the road construction, in the
beginning of 1970s, nearly half of the highway network (28.899 km) was
composed of stabilized roads and 30% of the network (17,481 km) was
composed of surface treatment roads.
Today, percentage of surface treatment roads increased to around 80%
and asphalt concrete roads constitutes 16% of the highway network.
When the total length of the surface types in the last three years is
examined, it is seen that road network transportation investments are
mostly intended to increase length of asphalt concrete roads.
As a result, at the end of 2012, approximately 94% of the 63,255 km of
highway network including state and provincial roads (31,375 km state
highways , 31,880 provincial roads and 2,127 km of highways ) consisted of
bitumen coatings [1]. In addition, 44% of the 320,366 km of village roads
consists of bitumen coatings [2].
Today, the density of the road network length per 100 km2 area (including
rural roads) is around 47 km in Turkey, which is around 110 km in the EU-
25 countries [34].
 Current State of Highway Network
Management
TGDH have 18 regions except 17th Region which is responsible for
motorways, each region periodically performs maintenance work
on asphalt state and provincial roads under their responsibility. 18th
Region was established as results of the split of the 12. Region into
Erzurum and Kars.
Road network, total maintenance cost and unit maintenance costs
showed significant variations between regions.
Length of the road network is the highest for 2nd Region with 5,067
km. It is the lowest for 18th Region with 1,230 km. In 2012, total
maintenance cost was the highest for 11th Region with 94.0 million
TL, whereas it was lowest for 18th Region with 22.4 million TL. Unit
maintenance cost was the highest for 11th Region with 36,439
TL/Km, whereas it was the lowest for 3rd Region with 10,336 TL/Km
[35].
 Concrete Road Experience in Turkey

In Turkey, especially in the Black Sea region, some concrete roads were
constructed, but some of them were deteriorated after a while, as they were not
consistent with concrete road construction techniques.
Some of these roads continues to serve currently. In Adana and Mersin, there are
concrete streets and city roads that have been used for many years without repair
[36].
More recently TGDH constructed concrete road test sections to investigate the
performance of concrete roads, their advantages and disadvantages, and
application conditions.
This first two of these roads, were constructed within the framework of the
protocol between TGDH and TCMA, the third one constructed according to
protocol signed between TGDH and National Boron Research Institute (BOREN),
and the last one constructed by the KGM itself.
Some unexpected deteriorations were observed in these trial sections depending
on the location, road cross-section and application type. These problems reveal
that labor during construction is important factor for the performance of the
concrete roads as well as design and used construction materials [37].
Macroscopic Indicators for Potential of
Concrete Roads in Turkey
As can be seen from the above summary of the
literature, there are various indicators for the
preference concrete pavements. Most prominent of
these can be listed as follows:
Traffic composition
Climatic conditions
Soil characteristics

The first two can be studied at macro level with the

regional or corridor statistics, soil characteristics may
change from one location to another location,
therefore a set of indicators will be selected to examine
only the first two of them.
 In terms of traffic composition, the most important
statistic is the number of heavy vehicles on the road for
concrete road design.
Some analyses considers the total number of vehicles,
if the equivalent standard axle load (ESAL) values are
examined, it is seen that major difference comes from
rigid and articulated trucks.
Therefore, a value (Nt) will be considered to represent
number of total trucks (rigid and articulated) on road
sections published by General Directorate of Highways.
-
 If the climatic conditions are examined, it is seen that there are more than
one important indicator for road design.
As the negative impact of rising temperatures during the summer on
asphalt concrete roads that will create an advantage for the preference of
concrete roads, one of these indicators can be obtained by digitization of
the periods of highest summer temperatures.
In the summer months (June, July and August) average maximum summer
temperature (Navg-summer) can be obtained for each city.
Similarly, to represent the risk of freezing during the winter months and its
problems on the surface of asphalt, the indicator average lowest
temperature (Navg-winter) for the winter months (December, January and
February) can be obtained.
The other important climatic condition that effects pavements is the
freezethaw cycles, average daily highest and lowest temperatures should
be examined throughout the year to calculate annual number of this cycle.
 Vehicle and Load Density Distribution
in Turkish Highways
Annual Average Daily Traffic Volumes (AADT) on state roads
sections are published by TGDH (as an actual count or
prediction) separately for automobiles, middle commercial
vehicles, buses, trucks and articulated trucks.
If the last two ones (trucks and articulated trucks) are
considered as heavy vehicles, distribution of the number of
heavy vehicles on the road sections can be found as in
Figure 4 for 2011.
As it is seen, there is a daily less than 1,500 heavy vehicles
for 66% of the state road sections that have either actual or
predicted AADT values. %20 of these sections have
between 1,500 and 3,000 heavy vehicles.
 The percentage of the sections with more than 6,000 daily heavy trucks is
14%. The other important point in this issue is the total length of these
sections.
Sections with less than 1,500 heavy vehicles per day constitute 73% of the
total length of state roads. The percentage of total length of the sections
between 1,500 and 3,000 heavy vehicles per day is 16%.
There is an in average more than 6,000 heavy vehicles per day for 11% of
the total length of the state roads [38]. These sections are given visually in
Geographic Information Systems (GIS) environment .
The locations of the existing concrete roads are marked with star. As
expected, sections with high number of heavy vehicles are especially on
the corridors that connects big cities, ports and border crossings with
interior regions. There is also highheavy vehicle traffic around the cities
which are at the intersections of the intercity roads such as Ankara and
Afyonkarahisar.
 Climatic Conditions of the Cities

When studying the effects climatic condition, even if the special

location of the road section (elevation from sea level) might create
difference, it can be assumed that climatic effect will be the same.
As the city level of meteorological data is suitable for macroscopic
indicators, the effects of climatic conditions can be studied at city
level.
Extreme temperatures (30C and above) in summer are usually
observed in coastal and southeastern cities, while extreme cold
temperatures during the winter months is seen in the eastern and
central regions.
It is seen that freeze-thaw cycles are more frequently observed in
interior regions and eastern border (see Figure 8) [39]. State road
sections with more than 3,000 AADT for heavy vehicles are
presented in these maps, as they can be considered under high
number of heavy vehicles.
 Conclusions and Recommendations

The heavy vehicle traffic on the Turkish highways shows a

very non-homogenous distribution with high truck volumes
(more than 6,000 trucks/day) located mostly in the western
part and along certain other corridors as shown in Figure 5.
Even though average summer temperatures reach to very
high values (35-40) in the Southeastern Anatolia region,
there is no high truck traffic in that region, except for short
corridors serving mostly border gate traffic.
Marmara and Aegean regions have cities such as Bursa,
Balkesir, Manisa, zmir and Aydn that experience high
truck traffic volumes subject to relatively high
temperatures during summer.

 In terms of harsh winter conditions, northeast part of

Turkey has a severe situation with temperatures dropping
down to (-20), but this region, again, does not serve any
significant truck traffic, yet.
Many cities in the East and Central Anatolia experience
freeze-thaw cycles for more than 50 days a year, but not
many coincide with high truck traffic at the same time,
except for some short corridors in certain cities, such as
Bolu, Ktahya, Isparta, etc.
But, there are considerably high number of heavy vehicle
traffic in Ankara, Eskiehir, Aksaray and Nide located in
Central Anatolia region, which have the second highest
level of freeze-thaw risk with 40-50 days a year.
 From the overall analysis, it is seen that currently
there are some highway corridors carrying high
truck volumes, which is the strongest precursor
of the concrete road potential in Turkey.
There are regions that experience very critical
climatic conditions that may challenge and even
threaten the infrastructure management, but
these locations are not the highly developed
regions generating serious truck demand, yet; at
least not in the near future.
 While planning for the future road investments in
Turkey, it should be kept in mind that the test
segments may not really represent the true
potential and effectiveness of concrete roads;
because all the test segments have not been
exposed to traffic and climatic conditions that
would reveal the economic advantages of
concrete roads, and the labor quality during their
construction may not have been at the desired
standards.
 Secondly, if the current economic growth may
be sustained, it may generate more truck
traffic on the existing asphalt pavements that
may shift the leverage towards concrete road
options along longer corridors. In evaluating
future investment options, it is also important
to make a future projection on the availability
and cost of flexible pavement materials as a
comparative measure. -
 Thirdly, even without any change in the traffic volumes
or materials availability, there may be more localized
situations such as, soil conditions, that may certainly
warrant an economic leverage towards the concrete
roads due to total economic cost of construction,
maintenance and repair requirements of asphalt
pavements.
As a concluding remark, it should be kept in mind that
true and more exact potential of concrete roads could
be evaluated, if and only if, the infrastructure
investment decisions are done following highway
infrastructure asset management principles and life
cycle cost analysis of alternative pavement designs. -
 See more at: http://www.cementurk.com.tr/turkiyede-beton-
yol-potansiyelinin-gostergeleri?lang=en#sthash.gIcr3Jlx.dpuf
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39. Meteoroloji Genel Mdrl. TMA Veri Taban http://www.tumas.mgm.gov.tr/wps/portal
- See more at: http://www.cementurk.com.tr/turkiyede-beton-yol-potansiyelinin-gostergeleri?lang=en#sthash.gIcr3Jlx.dpuf
Elements of a Concrete Pavement
A concrete pavement is a structure comprising
of a layer of Portland cement concrete (base)
which is usually supported by a subbase layer
on the subgrade.
Concrete pavements may be either
unreinforced (plain) or reinforced depending
on how the designer prefers to control
shrinkage cracking, which will occur in the
pavements.
 The high modulus of elasticity and rigidity of concrete
compared to other road making materials provides a
concrete pavement with a reasonable degree of flexural or
beam strength.
This property leads to externally applied wheel loads being
widely distributed. This in turn limits the pressures applied
to the subgrade as illustrated in Figure 2.
The major portion of the load carrying capacity of a
concrete pavement is therefore provided by the concrete
layer alone. Its thickness is primarily determined by the
flexural strength of the concrete and by the magnitude of
the wheel or axle loads.
Figure 2 Distribution of Wheel Loads under
Concrete Pavements
 Subbases do not make a significant structural
contribution to concrete pavements. The
purpose of the subbase is to provide uniform
support to the base concrete layer and to
provide sufficient resistance to erosion of the
subbase material under traffic and
environmental conditions.
Only lean mix concrete or bound subbases are
recommended in the design guides.
 By contrast, a flexible pavement is a structure
comprising a number of layers of bound or
unbound materials which can have a variety of
surface treatments and in which the intensity
of stresses from traffic loads requires a lot
more depth to diminish as illustrated in Figure
3. Both the base and subbase layers in flexible
pavements contribute significantly to the
structural properties of the pavement.
 Although the strength of the subgrade does
not significantly affect the thickness of the
concrete pavement, unlike the situation with
flexible pavements where the thickness is
more sensitive to variations in the subgrade
strength, the proper design and construction
of the subgrade and subbase is still important
to the performance and long term
serviceability of a concrete pavement.
 Table 1 compares the large and very
significant variations of the Elastic Moduli
between concrete and flexible pavement
materials. For identical loading, it is obvious
that the performance of concrete pavements
would be greatly superior.
 Where provided, steel reinforcement is used
for the control of cracking resulting from
drying shrinkage and subsequent temperature
changes within the pavement. It is important
to note that this reinforcement is not for crack
prevention nor to increase the flexural
strength of the concrete base.
 Types of Concrete Pavements

As there are differences in the definitions of

flexible and rigid, only cementitious
concrete pavements are regarded as rigid,
with all other types classified as flexible. The
types of concrete pavements are:
 1 Jointed Plain (unreinforced) Concrete
Pavement PCP
2 Jointed Reinforced Concrete Pavement
JRCP
3 Continuously Reinforced Concrete
Pavement CRCP
4 Steel Fibre Reinforced Concrete Pavement
SFCP
5 Prestressed Concrete Pavement
 For bases, 35 MPa compressive strength (4.5
MPa flexural strength) concrete is used.
For heavy duty (highway) pavements its
specified that the minimum thickness is 230
mm for CRCP and 250 mm for PCP.
The lean mix concrete subbase has a
characteristic 28 day compressive strength of
5 MPa and is designed with a low shrinkage
characteristic of less than 450 m.
3.1 Jointed Plain Concrete Pavement
PCP
 PCPs contain no reinforcement, except at special situations
where irregularly shaped slabs or mismatching joints are
involved
PCP is the most common pavement for highways Worldwide
Transverse contraction joints are induced by saw cuts and
their spacing is determined by limiting the maximum
shrinkage movement in the joint to 2 mm. This results in an
average spacing of about 4.2 m (For longer lengths of up to
5 m, dowels have to be used).
Longitudinal joints are either induced by saw cuts or
formed. These have a maximum spacing of 4.3 m and are
held together by suitably spaced 12 mm deformed
tiebars.
 3.2 Reinforced Concrete Pavement
JRCP
JRCPs are typically reinforced with welded steel
fabric, usually F82 (8mm bars at 200 mm
centres)
Transverse contraction joints are induced by saw
cuts providing slab lengths of 8 m 12 m. (Slab
lengths are varied depending on the length of the
mesh sheets available)
JRCP joints are always dowelled.
The criteria for longitudinal joints is the same as
for PCP
3.3 Continuously Reinforced Concrete
Pavement CRCP
 CRCP has continuous longitudinal reinforcement of N16 deformed
bars to induce transverse cracking at random spaces of 0.5 2.5
Nowadays the preferred location is central
No contraction joints are provided
Transverse reinforcement bars are provided to support the
longitudinal steel and as a means of holding together any
unplanned longitudinal cracks
The criteria for longitudinal joints are the same as for PCP.
Worldwide there is no universal agreement on the percentage of the
longitudinal steel required. In Australia 0.65% of the cross sectional
area of the slab is recommended, compared with 0.6% by FHWA,
Texas 0.42% or US Corps of Engineers at 0.32%. In Belgium they
have pavements with up to 0.8%.
Steel Fibre Concrete Pavement SFCP

SFCP is used in situations where there is a need to

provide increased resistance to cracking in both odd
shaped and acute cornered slabs and is ideally suited
for areas with high proportion of slabs of irregular
shape, e.g. roundabouts.
Transverse and longitudinal contraction joints in SFCPs
are undowelled and at a maximum spacing of 6 m
Steel fibre is usually mixed at ~70 kg/m3 and the
characteristic compressive strength of concrete is 40
45 MPa, giving a flexural strength of 5 MPa.
Slabs are generally thinner than those of conventional
concrete and have a minimum thickness of 180 mm.
 3.5 Prestressed Concrete Pavement -
PSCP
PSCP is generally used for prefabrication of
base slabs for replacement of damaged slabs
in all types of concrete pavements
 4 Lean Mix Concrete (LMC) Subbase

LMC subbases are constructed as mass

concrete without transverse or longitudinal
joints and therefore will develop cracks.
 Limiting both the upper strength of the
concrete and shrinkage will control cracking.
It is intended to achieve a pattern of relatively
closely spaced and narrow cracks that will also
provide a degree of load transfer and which in
conjunction with the debonding layer will not
reflect or effect the structural base.
 Even though LMC is non-structural in design, it has an
important role to perform:
- to provide a working platform
- to resist erosion of the subgrade and limit the likelihood
of pumping at joints and slab ends
- to provide uniform support for the base slab
- to reduce deflections at joints
- to enhance load transfer across the joints
- to assist controlling swell/shrinkage of high-volume-
change soils in the subgrade
- to provide accurate levels for the base
Concrete Pavements

Benefits
The beneficial attributes of concrete pavements can be summarised as :
1 Longer lasting 40 year Design Life (some States in US ale already using 50 years
and even this may increase in the future).
2 Heavy duty Pavements have generally the lowest cost.
3 Pavement maintenance costs are up to 10 times cheaper than the same for
flexible pavements.
4 Minimum maintenance requirements result in less traffic disruption, minimum
congestion time and as a result Work zone safety.
5 Lowest Life Cycle Cost of all Heavy Duty pavements and highest salvage value.
6 Can be constructed over poor subgrades.
7 Thinner overall pavement thickness = lower consumption of raw materials.
8 Resistant to abrasion from turning actions.
9 Not susceptible to high or low temperatures.
10 No affected by weather, inert to spills and fire.
11 Completely recyclable.
 12 High abrasion durability.
13 Profile durability.
14 Safer because it maintains its shape, no deformation, resistance to rutting and
potholes and excellent skid resistance.
15 High sustainability rating through use of local materials.
16 Use of waste products like flyash and slag.
17 Riding quality does not deteriorate.
18 Can be slipformed up to 13 m.
19 Saving of fuel costs of at least 1.1% over asphalt (VTI Sweden 1.1% 2008, NRC
Canada 0.8 to 6.9%).
20 Light colour enhances night visibility.
21 Less energy for street lighting (up to 30%).
22 Less heatsink effect (av 8C lower than asphalt = less air conditioning energy in
urban areas.
23 Longitudinal diamond grinding, called Next Generation Concrete Surfacing
(NGCS) now provides quieter surface than for example Open Graded Asphalt
overlay
 Negatives

To provide economics and quality, it requires larger projects.

Set-up costs are significant.
On-site batch plant is essential for slipforming.
Slipforming requires minimum 200 m runs.
Concrete must achieve a certain strength before it can be
placed under traffic
Repairs take longer = traffic disruption and work site safety.
Unless longitudinal grooving is used, tyre/road noise can
become a nuisance issue in urban areas after 80/90 km/h
speeds. (Transverse texturing creates higher frequency
noise that is objectionable to some: concrete = 1100 Hz vs
asphalt = 800Hz).