695

Structural design of asphalt pavement on

concrete bridges
Mara Castro

Abstract: Traditional methods for the structural design of pavement cannot be applied to the design of pavement on
bridge decks. In this paper, a new method for the structural design of asphalt pavement on concrete bridge decks is
presented. The method can be applied to pavement on girder, slab, and box-girder bridges and can be used whatever
the considered degree of bonding between pavement and deck. The method consists of modelling the deck as a two-
layer system and then calculating stresses and strains in the pavementdeck system by means of a multilayer system.
The proposed methodology has been applied to study the behaviour of asphalt concretes, porous asphalts, and stone
matrix asphalts on girder, slab, and box-girder bridges. There is a conclusion of this application that stands out for its
practical character. The stone matrix asphalts have the best performance if fatigue is the main concern.
Key words: bridge decks, asphalt pavement, design.
Rsum : Les mthodes traditionnelles de dimensionnement de revtements ne peuvent tre appliques la conception
des revtements bitumineux des tabliers de pont. Cet article prsente une nouvelle mthode de dimensionnement de re-
vtements bitumineux des tabliers de pont en bton. Cette mthode peut sappliquer aux revtements des ponts pou-
tres, des ponts-dalles et des ponts poutres en caisson. De plus, elle peut tre utilise peu importe le niveau
dadhrence considr entre le revtement et le tablier. La mthode consiste en une modlisation du tablier en tant que
systme bicouche, puis au calcul des tensions et des contraintes sur le systme tablier-revtement en utilisant un sys-
tme multicouche. La mthodologie propose a t applique ltude du comportement des btons bitumineux, des
enrobs drainants et des microbtons bitumineux sur les ponts poutres, les ponts-dalles et les ponts poutres en cais-
son. Une conclusion de cette tude se distingue par sa nature pratique : les revtements microbtons bitumineux offrent
le meilleur rendement si la fatigue constitue la proccupation principale.

Mots cls : tabliers de pont, revtements bitumineux, dimensionnement.

[Traduit par la Rdaction] Castro 702

Introduction
From the structural engineering point of view, the bitumi-
nous pavement of a concrete bridge is not more than a dead
load because it does not contribute to the bridge strength due
to its low stiffness.
On the other hand, the most commonly used models for
the structural design of pavement cannot be applied to
bridge pavement, since the deck invalidates the hypotheses
on which they are based. In this way, unlike the great variety
of general methods for the structural design of pavement, it
is difficult to find works in the field of bridge pavement.
So far, selection of the bituminous pavement that will be
placed on a concrete bridge is made based on the experience
of the project engineer. At best, it is chosen from a solutions
catalogue. In this selection, the structural behaviour of the
deck that will support the pavement is not taken into ac-
count.
The behaviour of the bridge pavement is often unsatisfac-
tory, however, with shortcomings due mostly to the lack of
consideration given to the structural behaviour of the bridge
deck in the adopted solutions.
This paper presents a methodology for the structural anal-
ysis of asphalt pavement on concrete bridge decks. This
methodology has been applied to the comparison of several
pavements located on bridges of different structural types.
State of the art
Bridge asphalt pavement comprises one or several layers
of bituminous material whose main function is to provide
good surface evenness and appropriate skid resistance and to
protect the deck from the direct action of traffic and atmo-

Received 19 June 2003. Revision accepted 6 April 2004. Published on the NRC Research Press Web site at http://cjce.nrc.ca on
23 August 2004.
M. Castro.1 Transport Department, Civil Engineering School, Madrid Polytechnic University, Prof. Aranguren s/n, 28040 Madrid,
Spain (e-mail: mcastr@epes.upm.es).
Written discussion of this article is welcomed and will be received by the Editor until 31 December 2004.
1
Present address: Titulacin de Ingegnera en Geodesia y Cartografa, E.U.I.T. Topografa, Universidad Politcnica de Madrid,
Camino de la Arboleda s/n, Complejo Politcnico de Vallecas, Km. 7 de la Carretera de Valencia, 28031 Madrid, Spain.

Can. J. Civ. Eng. 31: 695702 (2004) doi: 10.1139/L04-032 2004 NRC Canada
696
spheric agents, especially water, freezethaw, and deicing
salts. With the purpose of limiting the dead load on the
structure, the bridge pavement is usually not as thick as that
of the highway.
The function of deck protection is becoming increasingly
important, since the number of highway administrations that
demand or recommend the adoption of some deck protection
system, among which is bituminous pavement, is increasing
(PIARC 1995; Manning 1995). It is also necessary to high-
light the practice, very frequent in Europe, of placing a wa-
terproofing layer on the deck before building the pavement
(OCDE 1972; PIARC 1983, 1987).
There is a great variety of types of asphalt pavement that
can be used on concrete decks. The number of layers, com-
position of the bituminous mix, and thickness usually vary
from one country to another. According to the most wide-
spread practice, the pavement placed on a deck, which may
have been previously waterproofed, is generally made up of
one or more layers of bituminous mixes whose total thick-
ness usually varies between 3 and 10 cm (in Spain between
5 and 7 cm). A layer of mastic asphalt or asphalt concrete is
sometimes placed on top of the waterproofing. This layer,
called a protection or intermediate layer, helps to prevent the
possible punching of the waterproofing by upper layers and
to ensure watertightness. When the deck cross-sectional
slope is different from the pavement surface final slope it is
necessary to place a layer of variable thickness to obtain the
proper shape. This reshaping layer is placed on top of the
protection layer, although sometimes the protection layer is
used for the reshaping. The wearing course is placed last and
may constitute asphalt concretes, asphalt mastics with the
addition of natural asphalt and chippings, gap-graded stone
matrix asphalts with modified bitumen, porous asphalts, or
dense graded asphalt concretes with modified binders.
In areas with a warm climate, like Spain, a single bitumi-
nous layer is usually placed as pavement on top of a deck
that may have been waterproofed (waterproofing is not man-
datory). Often, this layer is the same as the wearing course
for the rest of the highway.
In many countries there are not specific standards for
bridge pavement and, due to the lack of specific solutions,
the same wearing course as that for the rest of the highway
is sometimes placed on top of the deck, as previously men-
tioned. In some countries, there are recommendations for
bridge pavement that are usually a mere summary of possi-
ble solutions (Union Suisse des Professionnels de la Route
1988; Department of Transport 1988; CRR 1987; Ministre
des Travaux Publics 1978), and often they are more intended
for waterproofing than for pavement definition, sometimes
adopting for the later, bituminous mixes from the general
standard. In this sense, and despite also being a solutions
catalogue, it is necessary to point out the French recommen-
dations given by the Service dtudes Techniques des
Routes et Autoroutes (SETRA 1981). In these recommenda-
tions, criteria are also given for choosing between using a
specific pavement for the bridge or maintaining the same
pavement as that of the adjacent highway.
There is a notable gap in the methods for pavement struc-
tural analysis in the case of pavement located on bridges. It
is necessary to highlight the investigations of asphalt pave-
ment on concrete bridges carried out by De Backer (1980),
Can. J. Civ. Eng. Vol. 31, 2004
Battiato and Verga (1982), and Tabchi (1984) and the mod-
els of asphalt pavement on steel bridges carried out by Bild
(1987), Nishizawa et al. (2001), and Huurman et al. (2002).
In the case of asphalt pavement on concrete decks, the ex-
isting methods have approached the problem by dividing it
into two: the first is solved using general procedures of
structural analysis, and the second using layered methods of
pavement analysis (De Backer 1980; Tabchi 1984). As an
exception, is some cases, the objective of the research and
the particular conditions of the study make, according to the
authors, sufficiently approximate the results from the direct
use of layered systems; however, the authors state that this is
not a general method for bridge pavement analysis (Battiato
et al. 1978).
Among the bridge characteristics that should be consid-
ered in the pavement project, structural stiffness is an essen-
tial factor because it imposes a stiffness requirement on the
pavement, which should be able to follow the deformations
of the structure that serves as a support. In this sense, struc-
tural analysis methods proposed by De Backer (1980) and
Tabchi (1984) follow this approach. The bridge stiffness is
related to its structural type, geometry, and concrete strength
characteristics.
In the first step of the method by De Backer (1980), the
radius of curvature of deflection of the deck is calculated un-
der the point where the load is applied. This calculation is
very difficult for pavement engineers because they are not
usually experts in bridge structural analysis. The method by
Tabchi (1984) is not applicable to slab decks nor to any
bridge with pavement and deck bonded.
The existing methods for the structural analysis of flexible
pavement on concrete bridges share the following features:
(1) None of the methods take into account the vibrations of
the bridge. According to studies by the Belgian Centre
de Recherches Routires (CRR), the contribution of
bridge vibrations to asphalt pavement fatigue can be
considered as insignificant (De Backer 1984).
(2) The load is always a vertical pressure. The methods do
not take into account the horizontal forces applied by
the tire on the wearing course.
(3) The methods do not consider partial bond between deck
and pavement. The method by Tabchi (1984) supposes
that the existence of a decompression layer made up of
a veil of fibreglass is equivalent to null bond, and this is
the only bond hypothesis that he considers. De Backer
(1980) admits the possibility of considering the two ex-
treme hypotheses of bond, i.e., null and total. In the re-
search of Battiato et al. (1978), the two hypotheses of
null and total bond are also considered.
(4) The multilayer methods use a circular load correspond-
ing to a single wheel. The method of Tabchi (1984) also
considers a single wheel, but it supposes a square load
referred to some Cartesian axes coincident with the
bridge longitudinal and transverse directions.
(5) No method studies the pavement and bridge globally. The
layered systems study a surface very restricted to the
loaded area. In the method of Tabchi (1984) the studied
area corresponds to the area between the longitudinal
beams of a girder deck or the webs of a box-girder deck
(Tabchi does not study the case of slab decks).
2004 NRC Canada
Castro 697

Bridge pavement structural analysis Fig. 1. Structural design method.

method
The method presented here has been developed in the
framework of research carried out in the Transport Depart-
ment of the Polytechnic University of Madrid (Castro 1996).
It has been developed for asphalt pavement located on the
more widely used types of concrete bridges: girder, slab, and
box girder. Girder, slab, and box-girder bridges constitute
more than 90% of all concrete bridges (Manterola 1995).
The method for the structural analysis of asphalt pave-
ment on concrete bridges is particularly appropriate for the
comparison among different solutions. Furthermore, the
tools and necessary knowledge to use the method allow an
easy practical application for pavement engineers. In the re-
Fig. 2. Girder decks. The arrow indicates the load position.
search carried out, finite element models of the pavement
deck system have also been developed (Castro 1996), but the
time required for preparation and analysis of results makes
these models suitable only for very restricted research
works.
The method presented in this paper uses layered systems,
a classical tool for the structural design of pavements. The
deck is substituted by an equivalent, from a stiffness point of
view, two-layer system. Next, the pavementdeck system is
analysed like a multilayer system made up of the layers of
pavement (one or several) and the previously determined
two-layer system. The load is a vertical normal pressure uni-
formly distributed over a circular surface area corresponding Load position
to a single wheel, and the materials are assumed to be linear The load will be applied at the thinnest point of the con-
elastic. crete deck where vehicle wheels can pass. According to the
The method does not consider vibrations of the bridge be- type of bridge, the load position to consider will be as fol-
cause, according to studies by the CRR (De Backer 1984), lows:
the contribution of bridge vibrations to asphalt pavement fa- (1) Girder decks The load will be placed at the half point
tigue can be considered as insignificant. of the concrete slab between two longitudinal beams
(Fig. 2).
Before applying the method, the project engineer should
(2) Box-girder decks To determine where the load will
set up (i) the number of pavement layers and the thickness,
be placed, it is necessary to choose the smaller thickness
elastic modulus, and Poissons ratio of each layer; (ii) the
between the two following possibilities: the half point of
bridge type and deck cross section and elastic modulus and
the slab between webs, and the most external point in
Poissons ratio of the deck concrete; and (iii) the expected
the lateral cantilevers for which the wheel of a vehicle
degree of bonding between the different layers that consti-
can pass. In this sense, the Spanish standard considers
tute the pavement and between the deck and pavement.
that the centre of the wheel is never located less than
The degree of bonding hypothesis has a big impact on the 0.5 m from the sidewalk, guardrail, or parapet (MFOM
results. The project engineer must choose the most accurate 1998) (Fig. 3).
bond hypothesis. The materials used and the placing condi- (3) Slab decks The load will be placed at the most exter-
tions must be taken into account, such as asphalt coats be- nal point in the lateral cantilevers along which a vehicle
tween pavement layers or between pavement and deck, wheel can pass, in agreement with the same approach
waterproofing of the deck, or decompression layer made up given for box-girder decks (Fig. 4).
of a veil of fibreglass.
To speed up the calculation of stresses and strains it is ad- Two-layer system equivalent to the deck
visable to have a multilayer computer program (software The two-layer system equivalent to the deck is made up of
based on Burmisters layered theory). This program should a concrete layer on top of a homogeneous elastic half-space
allow the introduction of very low values of elastic modulus (Fig. 5). The concrete layer has the thickness, elastic modu-
(as low as 10 Pa) and provide results, in vertical stresses, in lus, and Poissons ratio of the deck under the load-
a format that permits resolution to 0.1 Pa. application point. A zero value will be taken as the Poissons
The procedure is structured in the following four phases ratio for the elastic half-space. The half-space elastic modu-
(Fig. 1): (i) determination of the load position; (ii) determi- lus will be determined with the condition of getting a verti-
nation of a two-layer system equivalent to the deck; (iii) ap- cal stress between 0.1 and 5.0 Pa in the top boundary of the
plication of a multilayer system for the calculation of half-space when there is a circular load, on the concrete
pavement stresses and strains; and (iv) application of a fail- layer, corresponding to that of a single wheel. The difference
ure criterion to estimate the pavement life. in the results considering different degrees of bonding be-

2004 NRC Canada

698
Fig. 3. Box-girder decks. The arrows indicate the load positions.
Fig. 4. Slab decks. The arrow indicates the load position.
Fig. 5. Two-layer system structurally equivalent to the deck. The arrows indicate the load-application point. E*, half-space elastic
modulus for the two-layer system equivalent to the bridge deck; Ec, deck concrete elastic modulus; hc, concrete deck thickness; ,
Poissons ratio; c, deck concrete Poissons ratio.
Fig. 6. Half-space elastic modulus (girder bridges).
tween the concrete layer and the homogeneous elastic half-
space is nearly insignificant.
The recommended values for the half-space elastic modu-
lus are presented in Figs. 6 and 7. These values can be used
to begin the iterations or, if the bridge characteristics match
one of the calculation hypotheses, the value shown in the
graph can be taken directly as the half-space elastic modu-
lus.
Figure 6 shows the half-space elastic modulus resulting
from applying the proposed methodology to girder bridges
with different slab thicknesses. The slab concrete has been
assumed to have a characteristic strength of 25 N/mm2 at
28 days. Slab thicknesses of between 20 and 30 cm have
been considered because this is the normal range of thick-
nesses.
Can. J. Civ. Eng. Vol. 31, 2004
Fig. 7. Half-space elastic modulus (slab or box-girder bridges).
Figure 7 shows the half-space elastic modulus resulting
from applying the proposed methodology to slab or box-
girder bridges. Concrete has been assumed to have a charac-
teristic strength of 35 N/mm2 at 28 days, and deck
thicknesses of between 20 cm and 1 m have been consid-
ered.
Multilayer system
A multilayer system is built by placing one or several lay-
ers of bituminous mixes on top of the two-layer system de-
termined in the previous phase. The complete multilayer
system is composed of the pavement layers, the concrete
layer, and the elastic half-space. The stresses and strains of
the layers, due to a circular load, are then calculated by
means of a multilayer software program. If the pavement has
2004 NRC Canada
Castro
Fig. 8. Multilayer system. p, pavement Poissons ratio; hp, pave-
ment thickness.
a single layer of bituminous mix, as is usual in Spain, the
multilayer system will have three layers (Fig. 8).
Damage analysis
Lastly, a failure criterion is applied to estimate the pave-
ment life. Asphalt pavement on concrete bridges can suffer
the following types of damage: waterproofing blisters, courses
flow (waterproofingdeck and pavementwaterproofing), slip-
page, fatigue cracking, rutting, bleeding, scabbing, and sur-
face degradation (De Backer 1978; OCDE 1972).
Application
This method has been applied to the study of the behav-
iour of four asphalt pavements on eight bridges of different
structural types (Castro 1996).
Studied pavements
The behaviour of asphalt concretes, stone matrix asphalts,
and porous asphalts has been studied because they are the
types of pavement used in Spain.
As previously mentioned, in the absence of a specific so-
lution for the bridge pavement, the wearing course of the
highway is commonly used as bridge pavement in Spain.
Therefore, a 6 cm thick asphalt concrete (AC) was chosen as
the first type of pavement to study. The second pavement is
the same asphalt concrete, but its thickness (10 cm) was se-
lected to evaluate the influence of increased layer thickness.
AC is a conventional mixture in Spain with a bitumen con-
tent of between 4.5% and 4.75% of the weight of the aggre-
gates. Both pavements have an elastic modulus of
6000 MPa, obtained in the laboratory at 20 C and 10 Hz
according to the Spanish standard (Centro de Estudios de
Carreteras 1990a).
The third pavement is a porous asphalt (PA) with 4.5%
modified bitumen. It is 4 cm thick and has an elastic modu-
lus of 2000 MPa (also at 20 C and 10 Hz).
The fourth pavement is a gap-graded stone matrix asphalt
(SMA) with a modified bitumen content of from 5% to
5.5%, It is 2 cm thick and has an elastic modulus of
3600 MPa (also measured at 20 C and 10 Hz). A Poissons
ratio of 0.35 has been adopted in all cases.
Selected bridges
The behaviour of the four types of pavement has been
analysed on eight bridges. Four bridges with girder decks
have been selected. They are made up of precast double-T
beams and a superimposed slab. Insofar as possible, the
699
practical range of spans corresponding to this bridge type
has been covered.
Two straight bridges with slab decks and constant thick-
ness, without recesses, have been chosen. Lastly, in the case
of box-girder deck bridges, two bridges, made up by a single-
cell box, have been selected, since it is the option more often
used in Spanish motorways.
Analysis of calculated stresses and strains
After determining the two-layer system equivalent to the
bridge in each case, the pavementdeck system has been
studied as a three-layer system made up of the pavement and
the two-layer system.
The calculations have been made twice, assuming first
that the pavementdeck bond is total and then considering
the opposite, i.e., that the bond is null.
In the hypothesis of null bond between pavement and
deck, traction strains appear in the lowest fibre of all mixes
studied. On the contrary, if total bond is assumed, the strains
are always of the compression type.
In the hypothesis of null bond, for every type of pavement
the greatest traction in the lowest fibre is obtained in box-
girder bridges (Fig. 9). For each bridge, the thinner the pave-
ment and the larger the modulus, the smaller the traction
strains. Therefore, the smallest traction strain appears in the
stone matrix asphalt (in three of the studied cases this strain
is nearly the same as that in the 6 cm thick AC), whereas the
largest traction strain takes place in the pavement made up
of porous asphalt (Fig. 9).
In the total bond hypothesis, it is necessary to highlight
the high shear stresses between the deck and the pavement.
This is a consequence of the large difference between the
elastic modulus of the concrete and that of the bituminous
mixture. Due to these high values of shear tension between
the deck and the pavement, there is a high risk that this bond
will disappear with time.
The results corresponding to the asphalt concretes show
that the bond stress increases when the pavement thickness
decreases. On the other hand, the bond stress also increases
when the difference between the elastic modulus of the
pavement and that of the deck increases. In all bridges, the
largest bond stress corresponds to the porous asphalt because
it is the mix with the smallest modulus and is the second
thinnest (Fig. 10).
If bond stresses corresponding to the same type of pave-
ment are compared on different bridges, the largest bond
stress corresponds to box-girder bridges (Fig. 10).
Failure criterion
In an inspection of 120 000 m2 of bridge pavement carried
out in Germany in the 1980s, cracking was the most widely
observed type of damage, as much in concrete bridges as in
steel bridges (Bild 1987). In Spain, around 41% of the
bridge pavements have cracks according to the Ministerio de
Obras Pblicas Transportes y Medio Ambiente (MOPTMA
1995). Structural fatigue is, without doubt, among the possi-
ble causes of this cracking.
According to research carried out in Italy, the existence of
a thin waterproofing layer is structurally equivalent to a non-
existent bond between pavement and deck (Battiato and
Verga 1982). Even if a total bond initially exists, this can be
2004 NRC Canada
700 Can. J. Civ. Eng. Vol. 31, 2004

Fig. 9. Traction strains.

Fig. 10. Maximum bond stress between deck and pavement.

lost because the great difference in elastic modulus between Table 1. Coefficients A and B of the fatigue laws.
the bituminous mixture and the concrete causes a very high
bond shear stress. As already indicated, if pavement and Pavement A B
deck are unbonded, traction strains appear in the bottom of AC (6 cm thick) 3.67 0.23
the bituminous mix. These strains could produce pavement AC (10 cm thick) 3.04 0.14
failure by fatigue. PA 3.57 0.25
In the total bond hypothesis, the pavement is subjected to SMA 3.43 0.17
compressions, so the main possible damage would be per-
manent deformations. According to MOPTMA (1995), rut-
ting and potholes occupy the third place in the frequency
ranking of damage types in bridge pavements in the Spanish is half the initial load. Table 1 shows coefficients A and B of
state road network, after cracking and surface deterioration. the fatigue laws, according to
For the reasons that have just been presented, fatigue
cracking has been considered the only failure criterion. The [1] logr = A + B log N
analysis was made with the maximum traction strains in the
pavement bottom. These strains correspond to the null bond where r is the radial strain multiplied by 106 (microstrains),
hypothesis between deck and pavement. and N is the number of cycles.
Fatigue laws corresponding to Spanish mixes have been Figure 11 shows in logarithmic scale the number of load
chosen (Garca and Martn 1992). These laws have been ob- cycles (axles of 13 t) needed to fatigue each pavement on the
tained using the fatigue test normalized in Spain (Centro de different bridges (girder, slab, and box girder). All the
Estudios de Carreteras 1990b). This test is controlled by dis- studied pavements demonstrated the worst behaviour on
placement so that, during the test, the maximum displace- box-girder bridges from the fatigue strength point of view.
ment of the specimen remains constant while the applied Similarly, the thinner the pavement and the bigger the modu-
load to get that displacement diminishes each cycle. It is as- lus, and obviously the higher the fatigue strength of the bitu-
sumed that fatigue has been reached when the applied load minous mix, the longer the expected pavement fatigue life.

2004 NRC Canada

Castro
Fig. 11. Number of axles of 13 t (logarithmic scale).
Therefore, pavements composed of stone matrix asphalts are
the strongest from the structural fatigue point of view.
Conclusions
A method has been presented for the structural design of
asphalt pavement on concrete bridges that takes into account
the deck stiffness. This is a method intended to serve as a
tool in project tasks, such as the comparison of different op-
tions.
Unlike other methods already in existence, this method
presents several advantages such as speed, simplicity, and
precision. Application of the method does not require any
knowledge of bridge calculations. It can be used in the case
of pavement on girder, slab, and box-girder decks, regardless
of the degree of bonding between pavement and deck.
Due to the simplified hypotheses made, the method is not
applicable to pavement under strong shear efforts, such as
those which could appear in bridges located in very marked
curves or in braking areas. The method also should not be
used for pavement of great thickness, located in areas with
high temperatures, under slow and channelled traffic, and
with formulations that may foresee the appearance of perma-
nent deformations.
The application of this method to the study of different
pavements on different types of bridges has shown that all
the studied pavements demonstrated the worst behaviour in
box-girder bridges from the fatigue strength point of view.
Similarly, the thinner the pavement and the greater the
modulus, and obviously the higher the fatigue strength of the
bituminous mix, the longer the expected pavement fatigue
life.
In conclusion, this study highlights the good behaviour of
the stone matrix asphalts as bridge pavements, from the
structural fatigue point of view, versus other solutions such
as porous asphalt or conventional asphalt concretes. This
good behaviour and the excellent functional characteristics
of the stone matrix asphalts make them particularly suitable
as bridge pavement.
701
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List of symbols
A, B coefficients of the fatigue laws
E* half-space elastic modulus for the two-layer system
equivalent to the bridge deck
Ec deck concrete elastic modulus
Ep pavement bituminous mix elastic modulus
hc concrete deck thickness
hp pavement thickness
N number of cycles
r radial strain
Poissons ratio
c deck concrete Poissons ratio
p pavement Poissons ratio
2004 NRC Canada