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Road Pavements of Cement Concrete PDF
Road Pavements of Cement Concrete PDF
Cast in place concrete is used in very diverse applications for the If this is not the case, significant premature damage is liable to occur,
construction of road pavement because of numerous advantages i.e.: resulting in high maintenance costs.
- great rigidity and consequently a good distribution of the loads Following below, all aspects of the execution of monolithic pavements
on the foundation and excellent fatigue behaviour, are discussed. This bulletin is intended to be a reference publication
for people who are responsible for the execution of the works and for
- great resistance to wear and rutting and edges that do not erode; the supervision of construction.
- not affected by oil, organic substances, chemicals; The evaluation of both older and recent concrete pavements
demonstrates time and again how important the quality of the
2 - bright colour, skid resistance and safety in winter; execution is. It requires special attention, both from the contractor
- environmentally friendly. executing the works and from the people ensuring that the
specifications are complied with.
Concrete pavements last long too and require little maintenance, at
least if they have been designed properly and executed professionally.
E
LAXECUTION O FL CONCRETE
DRÊVE DE ORRAINE PAVEMENTS
There are different types of
monolithic pavements
I- Plain concrete - short pavement slabs
This type of pavement consists of successive slabs whose length is
limited to about 25 times the slab thickness. At present it is
recommended that the paving slabs not be made longer than 5 m,
even if the joints have dowels to transfer the loads. The movements as
a result of fluctuations in temperature and humidity are concentrated
in the joints. Normally, these joints are sealed to prevent water from
penetrating the road structure. The width of the pavement slabs is
limited to a maximum of 4.5 m.
Reinforced concrete pavement slabs are almost never used, except for
inside or outside industrial floors that are subjected to large loads or if
the number of contraction joints has to be limited. IIa
II-c Steel fibre concrete
IIb
IIc
3
1 PREPARATION OF THE SUB-
GRADE OR THE BASE
The road subgrade has to be prepared carefully, in order to realize
everywhere a pavement structure of an adequate and uniform
thickness. This allows to provide a homogeneous bond between the
concrete slab and its foundation which is important for the later
behaviour of the pavement stucture [1].
For roads with a base, drainage of the water must be provided. Mud,
leaves, etc. have to be removed [2].
It must always be avoided that water is sucked from the cement paste
into the substructure or the base. This can be accomplished by either
2 moderately moistening the subgrade, or by applying a plastic sheet on
To be forbidden the substructure of the pavement. The latter work must be done with
care, to prevent the sheet from tearing or being pulled loose by the
wind.
For small works, permanent concrete mixing plants are often called on.
In that case, mixing plants that are inspected and that can deliver
BENOR (Belgian quality certification) concrete should be used.
In order to place the side forms [6] properly the alignment of the road
has to be staked out carefully. This is usually accomplished by driving
iron rods firmly into the subgrade soil or the base at a spacing of
maximum 5 m. After the elevations corresponding to the top of the 6
forms have been marked on the rods, they are connected with a
stringline that represents the top of the forms. The form sections have
to be properly supported on the base at all points.The inner surfaces of
the forms shall be installed vertically and on line. In curved areas
shorter or bent form sections are used, so as to better match the
alignment of the curve.
After the form sections have been properly aligned over a certain
distance, they are secured by means of stakes. As the side forms serve
as the reference for guiding the vibratory screed, the tolerances for
the evenness shall not be exceeded. To accurately place the forms, a
rigid template having the same width as the concrete pavement must
be available on site, so that it can be checked at any time whether or
not the form sections are set up parallel.
5
The inside surface of the forms should be cleaned and oiled or coated 7
with a form release product, to prevent spalling when the forms are
stripped and to facilitate cleaning of the formwork elements before
they are used again.
3.1.3. Execution
The quality of the runway for the tracks of the paving equipment [10]
is undoubtedly one of the most important factors that contribute to
the realisation of a smooth pavement surface. In connection
therewith, the following criteria have to be met:
• drive the stakes deep enough into the subgrade or the base in 11
order to firmly fasten them;
• firmly anchor the ends of the stringlines into the subgrade or the
base ;
3.2.3. Equipment
- or the base itself (in this case the hydraulic self-leveling system is 7
blocked);
• Depending on the type, the machine can carry out one or more of
the following tasks:
3.2.4. Execution
The paving rate has to match the concrete delivery rate, but the
consistency of the concrete and the evenness of the track runways
16 must also be taken into consideration. In practice, the optimum speed
of the paving machine lies between 0.75 and 1 m/min. A steady
progress of the paving operations without detrimental interruptions
guarantees quality, whatever type of machine is used.
4 EXECUTION OF JOINTS
All the equipment that is necessary to make joints in the fresh or
hardened concrete must be present at the construction site.
The saw blades [19] have to be suitable to the quality of the concrete,
i.e. to the hardness and the abrasion resistance of the aggregates. It is
useful to have spare equipment available in case of a defect.
The beam for making a construction joint shall be rigid and shall allow
the realization of a straight joint perpendicular to the axis of the road.
This beam has to be adapted to the type of pavement (jointed
pavement, continuously reinforced concrete pavement).
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4.1.Transverse joints
4.1.1. Contraction joints
On main roads, the contraction joints are usually made by sawing. The
saw cutting should occur as soon as possible, usually between 5 and 24
hours after placement of the concrete. It is obvious that the concrete
should have hardened sufficiently in order to prevent the edges of the
joint from being damaged. In case of high temperatures, special
equipment is available to execute saw cutting within 3 hours
subsequent to the placement of the concrete. In that case, light
equipment is used to make saw cuts of about 2.5 cm deep. Every
sawcut that has not instigated a crack within 24 hours is deepened up 9
to 1/3 of the slab thickness.
To make such a joint, a thin steel blade (no more than 6 mm thick) is
vibrated into the fresh concrete to a depth of 1/3 of the slab thickness.
The joint can be made both with flexible and with rigid joint strips. In
the first method, a thin plastic strip twice as wide as the depth of the
crack point plus 2 cm is laid on the fresh concrete. The steel blade is
20
10
After having made the crack onset, the concrete surface along the
joint should be smoothened again. However, manual corrections
should be kept to a minimum as much as possible, since they can cause
spalling of the joint edges later.
Expansion joints [21] are only used exceptionally. In these rare cases,
they have to meet the necessary requirements so as not to cause
difficulties later.
Upon resuming the paving the fresh concrete is placed against the
concrete that has already hardened. The concrete is consolidated on
22
both sides of the joint with a separate manual needle vibrator.
These joints are realised between adjacent concrete lanes that are
executed simultaneously [23]. They are sawcut in the hardened
concrete, no later than 24 hours after the concrete has been placed.
12 The depth is at least 1/3 of the thickness of the slab.
It has to be checked whether or not the dowels and dowel chairs meet
the requirements specified. Deformable dowel chairs are rejected. The
same applies to the dowels. They must be perfectly straight, cut off
straight and shall not have any burrs. Dowels that are not maintained
perfectly parallel to the surface of the concrete pavement slabs can
block the opening up of the joint and subsequently induce cracking at
23
the end of the dowel [25].
• When using a slipform paver, special care shall be taken that the 26
dowels remain in place when the machine is passing.
In no case tie bars can be inserted into the fresh concrete once the
slipform paver has passed.
28
4.4. Sealing the joints
Transverse and longitudinal joints are usually sealed with a joint
sealant [29] to prevent water infiltration under the paving slabs in the
future. To this end, hot or cold joint sealants or prefabricated joint
strips are used. To achieve a durable seal, this work must be done with
the utmost care.
In the figures (see previous pages) the dimensions of the joint sealant
reservoir are given for contraction joints or construction joints. For
expansion joints the width of the sealant reservoir must be at least as
29 wide as the width of the compressible joint filler board. The edges of
the joint are chamfered in order to prevent spalling and to provide
space for expansion of the joint sealant .
5 PARTICULAR CASE:
CONTINUOUSLY REINFORCED
CONCRETE
5.1. Placing the reinforcement
Reinforcing bars for continuously reinforced concrete pavements are
usually delivered to the construction site in packs and subsequently
hand-placed [30]:
• delivery in packs that contain exactly the number of bars that are
required to make the reinforcement mesh for the entire pavement
width;
The longitudinal bars are either tied or clipped to the transverse bars
14 at every other bar intersection. For small curvatures (curves with small
radius, roundabout [31],) the longitudinal bars have to be bent in such
a way that the curvature is matched as closely as possible.
31
• The binding wires of the packs are cut. Each mat is lifted
separately by the crane - again using a loading beam - and laid in
its final position on the foundation.
6 SURFACE TREATMENT
The surface treatment that is applied after the placement and
finishing of the concrete is intended to give the pavement surface
optimal properties with regard to skid resistance and rolling noise
without detrimental effects on the smoothness of the pavement
surface. The aim is to give the concrete surface such a texture that
even at high speeds on wet road surfaces a great skid resistance and a
limited tire/pavement noise is achieved.This applies especially for roads
with intense and high speed traffic [33].
• the surface treatment shall not disrupt the smoothness and may
not obstruct surface drainage;
• exposed aggregate;
• pattern imprinting
6.1. Brooming
When treating the surface by brooming, the brooms shall be suitable
to apply the desired texture over the entire width of the pavement.
Immediately after the final finishing, hard brooms with close ly spaced
hairs are dragged across the surface of the fresh concrete.
7 PROTECTION OF THE
CONCRETE
7.1. Protection against drying out
The quality of hardened concrete, and in particular, the durability of
the surface, depends directly on the protection of the fresh concrete
against drying out. It is detrimental both to the strength and to the
shrinkage (risk of cracks forming) and also to the durability when the
fresh concrete loses water. As a result of their large exposed areas,
pavements are greatly subjected to drying out. E.g. at an ambient
temperature of 20°C, a relative humidity of 60 %, a temperature of the
concrete of 25°C and a wind speed of 25 km/h, 1 litre of water will
evaporate every hour from every m2 of pavement surface. Note that
the upper surface layer (a few cm thick) of the concrete only contains
about 4 litres of water per m2.
43
A curing compound is usually used to protect road concrete against
drying out [43]. This coating is sprayed on the concrete top surface and 17
on the vertical surfaces immediately after the paving train has passed
and, if applicable, after the concrete surface has been broomed.
It is pointless to talk about quality if not all employees, each at his own
level, make a special effort to understand the rules of good practice,
upgrade their know-how and act accordingly.
It is pointless to talk about quality if not all employees, each at his own
level, make a special effort to understand the rules of good practice,
upgrade their know-how and act accordingly.
• a quotation that takes into account all the difficulties that will
occur during the work;
20
21
Pictures: "Originally published in 2001 as technical sheet n° 26 of the FEBEL-
P.Van Audehove / A. Jasienski / slides archives FEBELCEM CEM "DOSSIER CEMENT".
DAYLIGHT sprl (7)
M. Gronemberger (11b, 19, 43)
A. Nullens (fond couverture, 10, 11, 14, 30, 38, 39, p20
Authors :
Ir F. Fuchs (Belgian Road Research Center)
Ir A. Jasienski