Evolution of design

Yoder and Witczak note that in the early development of concrete pavements,
they were built directly on subgrade regardless of subgrade type or
drainage conditions. Typical slab thicknesses were 152–178 mm (6–7 in).
With increasing traffic after World War II, pumping became an increasingly
important phenomenon, although it had been described as early as 1932
(Yoder and Witczak 1975: 596).
Thickened edge sections were common in the 1930s and 1940s. For
example, a pavement would be built 152 mm (6 in) thick in the center
and 203 mm (8 in) thick along the edges, which was described as an 8-6-8
design. Pavements were typically only 5.5–6.1 m (18–20 ft) wide (Yoder
and Witczak 1975: 596–597).
As designs evolved, pavements were built over granular subbases to prevent
pumping. In northern climates, thick bases were also used for frost
10 Introduction
protection. Pavement thickness was increased to 229–254 mm (9–10 in) for
highways (Yoder and Witczak 1975: 596–597). In modern practice, thicker
designs are often used for heavily traveled highways.
The long term pavement performance program
The last and greatest road test of all began in 1987 and continued for
the next two decades (and in fact continues today). This was the Federal
Highway Administration long term pavement performance (FHWA LTPP)
program, which is part of the strategic highway research program (SHRP).
The LTPP experiment encompassed rigorous field tests of more than 2,400
500 m (1,640 ft) asphalt and concrete pavement sections across the United
States and Canada (FHWA LTPP 2006).
The program consisted of both pavements that were in service at the
beginning of the test, termed general pavement studies (GPS) sections, and
pavement sections that were constructed specifically for the LTPP, termed
specific pavement studies (SPS) sections. SPS sections were constructed to
a specific experimental design within each experiment. In the original program,
there were 777 GPS sites and 234 SPS sites (Huang 2004: 26). An
additional experiment was the seasonal monitoring program (SMP) that
focused on environmental effects.
Within the GPS program, GPS-3, GPS-4, and GPS-5 analyzed JPCP,
JRCP, and continuously reinforced concrete pavement (CRCP), respectively.
Two other experiments analyzed concrete overlays on concrete pavements,
with GPS-8 for bonded overlays and GPS-9 for unbonded overlays (Huang
2004: 25–26). However, the GPS-8 bonded concrete overlay program was
not pursued.
Five of the nine SPS programs were relevant to rigid pavements. These
were SPS-2, structural factors, SPS-4, preventive maintenance effectiveness,
SPS-6, rehabilitation, SPS-7, bonded concrete overlays, and SPS-8, study
of environmental effects in the absence of heavy loads (Huang 2004: 26).
Because few states were willing to construct bonded concrete overlay test
sections, only four sites were built, and the SPS-7 experiment was terminated
early.
All sites had original inventory information and materials samples collected.
LTPP pavement sites are visited periodically by contractors for data
collection. Data collected includes traffic, profile, smoothness, distress, friction,
and falling weight deflectometer (FWD) readings. Detailed climate
information is also gathered (Huang 2004: 25–26).
The LTPP program offered many advantages over previous road tests. The
previous tests were limited to a single geographical location, and generally
used accelerated traffic loading. Accelerated traffic tends to obscure the
importance of environmental effects. In contrast, the LTPP program is
Introduction 11
nearly two decades old, and realistic traffic and environmental conditions
have been monitored over that time.
The LTPP program produced a large number of research reports and
design and analysis tools, including the spreadsheet-based 1998 American
Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO)
rigid pavement design procedure (AASHTO 1998). However, the greatest
importance of the LTPP program was in the development and calibration
of models for the new AASHTO Mechanistic-Empirical Pavement Design
Guide (M-EPDG).
In order to make LTPP data more accessible to users, the FHWA published
several versions of DataPave software. For several years, the LTPP
data and DataPave software were used for a student contest (Delatte
2002). The software has been superseded by DataPave Online, a website
that allows users to access and analyze LTPP data. “The LTPP DataPave
Online is a major effort to make the LTPP data more accessible to worldwide
transportation community” (FHWA DataPave 2006). The Transportation
Research Board (TRB) also has a program for LTPP studies
(TRB 2006).
Economy, service life, and life cycle costs
Highway agencies have reported service lives for concrete pavements of
as much as 25–40 years, or generally 11/2–2 times the service life of
asphalt pavements designed and built to similar standards. In general,
concrete is selected for heavily trafficked pavements and typically carries
four times as much daily truck traffic as asphalt pavements. Respective
life cycle costs of pavement designs depend greatly on material costs at
the time of construction, but concrete pavements often have significantly
lower maintenance costs although initial construction costs may be higher
(Packard 1994).
Challenges for the future
The interstate highway system was a monumental and historic undertaking.
However, in some respects, the engineers and builders of the early highways
and the interstate highway system had an easier task than those of today. As
the highway system has become built out, it must be maintained, repaired,
and reconstructed while, in many cases, allowing traffic to continue to
use the roadway. Much tighter environmental controls are now in place,
and quality raw materials for use in highway construction are becoming
increasingly scarce in many areas. Concrete overlays of various types have
an important part to play in the upgrading and maintaining of the overall
network. Accelerated or “fast track” paving materials and techniques have
been developed to get traffic onto pavements more quickly.
12 Introduction
Maintenance and rehabilitation
Even the best designed and built concrete pavements will eventually wear
out and require maintenance or rehabilitation. Concrete pavement performance
and distress are addressed in Chapter 3. Maintenance techniques and
maintenance management are discussed in Chapter 16, and rehabilitation
techniques in Chapter 17. It is important to recognize that timely maintenance,
or pavement preservation, can substantially extend pavement life
and delay the need for rehabilitation. When major work becomes necessary,
overlays, as discussed in Chapter 18, may be used.
An effective maintenance and rehabilitation program, however, also
requires a deeper understanding of how pavements behave. The basic design
aspects discussed in Chapter 7 can provide insight as to whether a particular
pavement distress may be due to inadequate pavement thickness, an
unstable subbase material, or excessive joint spacing.
Meeting congestion and safety challenges
“Rehabilitation of today’s highways requires traffic management, contracting
and construction techniques that are quick and efficient and that
result in a pavement with superior rideability and service life” (ACPA
2000c: 1). Pavement maintenance and rehabilitation are particularly challenging
for high volume pavements, particularly in congested urban areas.
The American Concrete Pavement Association (ACPA) has published Traffic
Management – Handbook for Concrete Pavement Reconstruction and
Rehabilitation (ACPA 2000c) to address some of these issues. Some important
points made in that document include:
• On many urban freeway reconstruction projects, the road user delay
costs may exceed $50,000 per day.
• Concrete pavement does not require a curing time of 5–14 days
before opening to traffic – mixtures are available that allow traffic in
6–8 hours.
• Limiting contractors to single lane closures or nighttime work hours
may be unwise for both safety and productivity.
• The public generally prefers a short project with major disruptions to
a long project with smaller disruptions. The slogan is “get in, get out,
stay out.”
• Issues that should be addressed include scope of the project, traffic
management, safety, construction requirements, innovative bidding,
constructability, emergency planning, and public information and coordination.
• Innovative bidding and contracting practices, such as incentives/
disincentives and A+B bidding (bidding both price and time),
Introduction 13
motivate and challenge contractors to finish projects and open them to
public traffic more quickly.
• Bridge abutments and clearances may constrict the range of available
work zone configuration options, and should be considered early in the
planning process.
• Recycling paving materials in place, as discussed later in this chapter,
reduces project duration.
• Availability and capacity of detour routes and access for work vehicles
are key considerations. Pavements and bridges on detour routes that
will carry significant increases in traffic require structural evaluation.
• It is important to communicate with the public about the impacts,
future benefits, and progress of the project to establish and maintain
support.
Non-destructive testing technologies such as maturity or ultrasonic pulse
velocity can estimate in-place pavement strength for opening to traffic.
ACPA (2000c: 28) provides a table for determining the strength necessary
to open the concrete pavement to public traffic.
Safety in US highway construction work zones is addressed in Part VI of
the Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices (FHWA 2003). Congestion
and capacity may be analyzed using Highway Capacity Manual 2000
(AASHTO 2000).
Accelerated concrete pavement construction and reconstruction are also
addressed by the American Concrete Institute (ACI) committee report Accelerated
Techniques for Concrete Paving, ACI 325.11R-01 (ACI Committee
325 2001). It is important to note that accelerated paving does not always
require high early strength concrete. With materials and mixtures in use
today, conventional paving concrete generally achieves sufficient strength
to carry traffic in 2–4 days, so if opening to traffic can be delayed that long
there is no need to use high early strength concrete. Small weekend closure
projects such as urban intersections can be built with conventional paving
concrete. If all concrete is placed by Saturday evening, it will have a day
and a half to cure for a Monday morning opening.
One interesting case study is the reconstruction of heavily trafficked
Interstate Highway 15 in Southern California. The concrete truck lanes
were badly deteriorated, and a 4.5 km (2.8 mile) section was rebuilt in
only two nine day closures. Because this is the main highway between Los
Angeles and Las Vegas, it has heavy traffic on weekends. The project is
discussed in detail by Lee et al. (2005). Some of the key features of the
project included:
• The pavement was rebuilt in nine day closures as opposed to overnight
closures, because the longer closures had been found to yield much
higher contractor productivity.