This paper has been modified from the original to correct the pagination.

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Journal of Testing and Evaluation, Vol. 39, No. 5

Paper ID JTE103516
Available online at: www.astm.org

RenJuan Sun,1 Hoonill Won,2 and Moon. C. Won3

The Application and Early-Age Behaviors of

Continuously Reinforced Bonded Concrete
Overlay of Distressed Jointed Concrete
Pavements

ABSTRACT: Considerable efforts and money are spent to maintain and repair the distressed jointed concrete pavement (JCP) sections by pro-
viding partial-/full-depth repair, under sealing, and patching; however, a lot of distresses reoccur frequently. For severe distresses, overlay was
constructed on the JCP. Resurfacing with a bonded concrete overlay (BCO) over the existing pavement to form a monolithic structure has proven to
be a cost-effective rehabilitation strategy. Continuously reinforced concrete pavement (CRCP) bonded overlay was constructed for the rehabilitation
of a 2000 ft long JCP section on U.S.75 in Sherman, Texas, United States which had been subjected to numerous rehabilitations to construct the
guidelines of the CRCP bonded overlay. The pavement design and concrete mix design selected are discussed and introduced in this article. In order
to reduce the reflective cracking at the location of the JCP joints, geotextile was placed at the joint location before the overlay construction. For the
study on the function of the geotextile, the geotextile was not placed at 20 JCP joints for the comparison. One week after the BCO construction, the
investigation for the CRCP cracking was carried out at three stages. The investigated results revealed that the cracks at the transverse steel location
are much more than those between the transverse steel. Falling weight deflectometer testing was run on the pavement surface before and after the
overlay construction to measure the deflection behavior of the pavement. The performance of the overlay shows that the bonded CRCP is appropriate
for the JCP resurfacing.
KEYWORDS: JCP, bonded overlay, CRCP, crack, geotextile

Introduction
In the United States, most Portland cement concrete (PCC) pave-
ments in use were designed and constructed decades ago, with in-
sufficient thicknesses for today’s traffic demand. This insufficient
thickness often resulted in pavement distresses such as punchouts
for continuously reinforced concrete pavement (CRCP) and mid-
slab cracking or joint faulting in concrete pavement contraction de-
sign (CPCD). Punchouts in CRCP are caused by environmental ef-
fects, excessive wheel loading, loss of support, and insufficient
structural capacity, and it is manifest by block(s) of concrete con-
nected by transverse and longitudinal cracks which are depressed.
Mid-slab cracking and joint faulting in CPCD occur due to
temperature/moisture variations and/or wheel loads stress that ex-
tend through the depth of a slab [1].
There are many rehabilitation options to fix the distresses and to
extend the service life of the PCC pavement. These range from the
combination of repair and preventive treatments such as full-depth
repair and partial depth repair to PCC overlays, and asphalt over-
Manuscript received November 2, 2010; accepted for publication April 12,
2011; published online June 2011.
1
Ph.D., Postdoctoral Associate, Department of Civil and Environmental En-
gineering, Texas Tech University, 10th St. and Akron, Lubbock, TX 79409 and
Lecturer, School of Civil Engineering, Shandong University, Jingshi Rd. 17923,
Jinan, Shandong 250061, People’s Republic of China, e-mail:
sunrenjuan@sdu.edu.cn
2
Graduate Student, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering,
Texas Tech University, 10th St. and Akron, Lubbock, TX 79409, e-mail:
hoonill.won@ttu.edu
3
Associate Professor, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering,
Texas Tech University, 10th St. and Akron, Lubbock, TX 79409, e-mail:
moon.won@ttu.edu
lays [2]. Compared to the easily appearance of reflective crack and
short life of the asphalt overlay, well designed, and constructed con-
crete overlays provide excellent performance, in many cases ex-
tending the life of existing pavements for an additional 30 years or
more [2].
There are two basic types of PCC overlays: Unbounded systems
and bonded systems. While the existing pavement is not structur-
ally sound, a PCC overlay will perform as a new pavement with the
existing pavement serving as a stable uniform base, which is
termed as unbonded overlay. Unbonded PCC overlay of an existing
PCC pavement with the debonding layer use the same design pro-
cedure as of the new pavements, and then give credit for the con-
tributing structural capacity of the existing PCC pavement. Bonded
concrete overlays (BCO) are used where surface distress exists, but
the structural condition of the existing pavement is good. Bonded
together, the overlay and existing pavement perform as one mono-
lithic pavement. The critical requirement for the success of BCO is
a good bond between the new and old concrete layers. If a good
bond is provided, the new slab composed of existing and new con-
crete layers will behave monolithically and increase slab thickness,
which can reduce the critical stress in the slab to prolong the pave-
ment life.
For the intended good bonding, the mix proportion plays an im-
portant role. The selection of aggregate may be further constrained
by the thermal behavior required of the overlay. It should expand
and contract with changing temperature the same or less magnitude
than the existing pavement. The greatest effect on this behavior is
the aggregate type, since the thermal behavior of the concrete de-
pends primarily on the thermal property of the aggregate [3]. When
the proper aggregates are used in the concrete mix, the attempts to
constraint the movement of the overlay to the existing pavement

Copyright © 2011 by ASTM International, 100 Barr Harbor Drive, PO Box C700, West Conshohocken, PA 19428-2959. 773
774 JOURNAL OF TESTING AND EVALUATION

can make and will be beneficial for the BCO structural perfor-
mance.
A variety of models have been used by various agencies for the
design of BCO, ranging from the early purely empirical methods to
the modern mechanistic-empirical methods. Currently available
pavement design methods include those developed by the U.S.
Army Corps of Engineers [4], the Portland Cement Association
[4,5], the American Association of State Highway and Transporta- (a) (b) (c)
tion Officials (AASHTO) [4], and the Mechanistic-Empirical Pave-
FIG. 1—FWD testing on the JCP slabs: (a) Up corner; (b) middle; and (c)
ment Design Guide [6].
down corner.
When a well-designed BCO with good bonding is constructed
precisely, the bonding condition would not be continuous for CRCP
over JCP because of the existing joint. The joint will reflect and large and indicated a decreasing of the structural strength and ac-
cause de-bonding between CRCP and JCP layers. For the CRCP celerated failure of the pavement.
overlay on JCP, the practice and experience are available. Among
all the design models presented above, there are not differences be-
tween different existing pavements and different overlays. As a re- Design and Construction of Continuously
sult, the designs for different type of pavements are same, which are Reinforced Bonded Concrete Overlay
not logical. Hence, testing and evaluations of the CRCP perfor-
mance especially at the position of the JCP joint will help to reveal The traffic investigation carried on this section show that the traffic
the working mechanism of the bonded CRCP on JCP and improve volume was pretty high and vehicle loads were very heavy. In the
the design and construction of it. design of the pavement, the design life for this pavement was deter-
The objective of this study is to discuss the design and construc- mined as 30 years. This future traffic provided a high requirement
tion of the bonded CRCP on JCP and investigate the performances to the structural ability of the pavement.
of it by a series of testing carried out before and after the construc-
tion.
Design of CRCP overlay
CRCP has the advantages of high strength and good durability, and
Evaluation of the Existing Pavement Condition it is widely and maturely utilized in Texas for the new pavement
construction and BCO on existing CRCP. Although the potential of
U.S.75 is a north-south highway, with the northern terminus in Kitt- the reflective crack in the BCO causes the bonded CRCP is not rec-
son County of Minnesota and the southern terminus in Dallas of ommended for the JCP overlay in Texas [1], we still have the reason
Texas. The original pavement of the section in Paris District was to expect the bonded CRCP to perform well on the existing JCP if
constructed in 1987 and composed of two main lanes of JCP in we can prevent the cracks reflecting to some extent. After the evalu-
each traffic direction. The slab was 10 in. thick and dowel bars were ation, finally the CRCP was selected as the overlay alternative.
placed along the transverse joint. With the distresses occurring suc- For the thickness design of the BCO, most widely accepted de-
cessively after ten years, inside and outside concrete shoulders sign procedures make use of the effective thickness approach. In
were tied to the existing traffic lanes by tie bars, but the distresses AASHTO 1993 method, the required thickness of the overlay is the
still arose. Over the years, full-depth repair, under-sealing, and difference between the thickness required for a new pavement and
patching have been applied on the distressed sections; however, a the effective thickness of the existing pavement, as indicated by Eq
lot of distresses reoccur frequently. 1
Severely distressed section between Exit 64 and Exit 63 of
South Bound was investigated, which crosses under through a local DBCO＝Df − Deff (1)
road. The elevation of South Bound is lower than that of North
where:
Bound and at the lowest location of the concave region, resulting in
DBCO = thickness of the overlay,
the water dropping down from surrounding to South Bound side
Df = required thickness to carry the future traffic if the pavement
and accumulating in the side ditch of South Bound during the rainy
was constructed new, and
season. Accumulated water caused a weak and non-uniform under-
Deff = effective thickness of the existing pavement.
lying support for the pavement. For the further evaluation, falling
Based on the design requirement in Pavement Design Guide of
weight deflectometer (FWD) test was run on the existing140 JCP
Texas and the traffic and subgrade conditions, the variables for the
slabs. Three points of each slab named as up corner, middle, and
calculation of pavement thickness were selected as illustrated in
down corner were tested, while for the distressed and repaired
Table 1. The calculated thickness of the pavement Df to carry the
slabs, more than three points were tested. The layouts of the FWD
future traffic was 14.2 in.
testing on the JCP slab are shown in Fig. 1.
The determination of the effective thickness Deff is through
The deflections of the slab under the loading plate are shown in
evaluating the existing pavement condition to scale on the existing
Fig. 2. The deflections were from several mils to decades of mils,
pavement thickness as presented by Equation 2
and the maximum value 55.34 mils occurred at slab 114. Generally,
the deflections at the middle locations are smaller than those at the
Deff = FⴱicFⴱdurFⴱfatD (2)
other two locations. For the down corner of the approaching slab
and up corner of the leaving slab of the same joint, the deflections where:
are different. The erosion underneath the slabs at the joint is the Fic = joints and cracks adjustment factor,
reason for this kind of difference. The overall deflections were so Fdur = durability adjustment factor,
 SUN ET AL. ON BONDED CRCP OVERLAY ON JCP 775

FIG. 2—Deflection of the JCP slabs under the loading plate.

Ffat = fatigue adjustment factor, and For sure, the implement of the bonding between CRCP and JCP
D = thickness of existing pavement. will play a dominant role in the BCO system. In order to keep the
From the historical records and condition survey data, the inves- bonding of CRCP overlay with JCP, some practices were made to
tigated deteriorated transverse joints and cracks were 28 per mile constraint the movement of the CRCP overlay. The three and a half
and 27 % slabs of this section were found cracked. Fic, Fdur, and Ffat slabs at each end of the existing JCP section were cold-milled to 3
were determined as 0.94, 0.88, and 0.94 respectively referred to in. deep to form a roughened surface that will promote bonding
Pavement Design Guide of Texas [1]. Since the existing slab was 10 between the two layers. The two end sections were called transition
in. thick, hence the effective thickness Deff was 7.8 in. According to sections and will connect the CRCP overlay section to the un-
Eq 1, the CRCP overlay was calculated as 6.4 and 7 in. thick was overlaid JCP sections smoothly. 7 in. long hook shape steel bars
determined for the final thickness design. were inserted 4 in. into the drilled holes in the milled slabs to con-
Steel design was based on the experience, and 0.7 % steel con- struct good connection between the CRCP overlay section and the
tent was selected. No. 6 steel rebar was used as transverse and lon- un-overlaid JCP section (Fig. 3). The hook bars were predicted to
gitudinal reinforcement. Transverse steel rebar spacing as 5 feet prevent the delaminating of the bonding interface of the overlay
were laid on the plastic chairs to support the longitudinal steel layer and the underneath layer. And the inclined steel were placed at
rebar. The center of the longitudinal steel was located at the mid- the location which connecting the CRCP overlay section with the
depth of the slab with the intervals of 6 inches. Both of the steel transition section.
used is Grade 60. Although our objectives were preventing the debonding and
The mix design of concrete is shown in Table 2, based on this subsequent deterioration of the BCO definitely, the wide existing
design and ACI 211.1-91 method [7], the proportions of all the ma- JCP joints had the potentials to reflect to the BCO and affect the
terial were determined. CRCP performance. To prevent cracks reflecting from the joints, 2
ft wide geotextile were glued to the slab surface at the joint loca-
tion. The selection of two feet wide geotextile was solely based on
Construction of CRCP Overlay engineering judgment. 20 of the joints were not covered by the geo-
Before the construction of the CRCP, the voids were detected under textile for the comparison. The arrangement of the geotextile and
the existing slabs and grout was injected into the voids under the steel are shown in Fig. 4.
slabs. All the asphalt patches were removed and replaced with con- For the drainage and traffic passing during the construction pe-
crete patches. The new and reoccurred concrete crack areas were riod, the project was divided into two phases: the inside traffic lane
repaired by concrete [8,9]. and inside shoulder were constructed together first on May 24,
2010, and the outside lane and outside shoulder was constructed
TABLE 1—Design variables and value of pavement thickness.
TABLE 2—Mix design of the concrete.
Design Variables Value
28-day concrete modulus of rupture (psi) 620 Item Value
28-day concrete elastic modulus (psi) 5000000 W/C ratio 0.45
Effective modulus of subgrade reaction (pci) 100 Specified 28 days compressive strength (psi) 4400
Serviceability indices 2.0 Mix design target strength (psi) 5600
Load transfer coefficient 2.6 Initial slump (in.) 1.5
Drainage coefficient 0.99 Specified nominal maximum aggregate size (in.) 1.5
Overall standard deviation 0.39 Maximum cementitious material content (lb/CY) 700
Reliability (%) 95 % Water adjustment factor 0.95
Design traffic (ESALs) 82000000 Calculated coarse aggregate factor 0.71
776 JOURNAL OF TESTING AND EVALUATION

(a) (b)

FIG. 3—Installation of hook bars: (a) drilled hole; (b) installed hook bars.

second on June 6, 2010. The multi-piece tie bars which were called
male piece and female piece were installed along the longitudinal
construction joint for the connection of the two constructed sec-
tions. All the issues introduced and discussed in this paper are
based on testing of the section constructed in the first phase. After
the arrangement of the geotextile, steel rebars, and the female piece
of the tie bars, the concrete was poured: Half was placed before
noon, and the other half was placed in the afternoon.
Curing is especially critical to bonded concrete resurfacing be-
cause the high surface area-to-volume ratio makes the concrete
more susceptible to rapid moisture loss [2]. In this project, the thick
mats were placed on the pavement surface and had been sprinkled
with water for 7 days to cure the concrete.
Timely joint sawing is necessary to prevent random cracking.
Sawing should begin as soon as the concrete is strong enough that
joints can be cut without significant raveling or chipping. Light-
weight early-entry saw was used to cut to 1/3 depth of the slab at the
location of main traffic lane connected with the shoulder, which
formed the longitudinal warping joints. The two transition sections
were cut at the 15 ft spacing transversely to form the joints and
match those of the underlying concrete pavement.
The tests run on the fresh concrete showed that the air entrain-
ment was 4.3 % and slump was 1.5 inches. The compressive
strength tests were carried out on the 4-in. by 8-in. harden concrete
cylinders at different ages, the compressive strength of 24 h, 3 days,
and 7 days were 2803 psi, 3025 psi, and 3877 psi, respectively.
FIG. 4—Arrangement of geotextile and reinforcement steel.
Crack Characterization of Continuously
Reinforced Bonded Concrete Overlay
After concrete hardening, the crack development and structural
performance of the bonded CRCP at early age play an important
role in the long term performance. The wide investigation on the
crack and deflection of the pavement was performed.
Crack spacing
Following the removal of the curing mat from the overlay, the crack
number of the CRCP was investigated and the crack spacing was
measured at June 3 (10 days after construction), June 4 (10 days
after construction), and June 13 (20 days after construction). A total
of 448 cracks were ultimately investigated.
The distance of the transverse cracks to the start point of the
overlay section were measured and all the crack spacings were ob-
tained. The minimum crack spacing was 0.5 ft, and the maximum
crack spacing was 25.33 ft. The average of all the crack spacings is
4.945 ft. The distribution of the crack number of different crack
spacing and is illustrated in Fig. 5. The most frequent crack spacing
was about 3 ft, which is 41.7 % of the total crack number.

FIG. 5—Distribution of the crack number of different crack spacing.

 SUN ET AL. ON BONDED CRCP OVERLAY ON JCP 777

FIG. 6—Crack number development above transverse steel and between transverse steel.

FIG. 7—Comparison of the crack number between the geotextile section with non-geotextile section at different concrete ages.

Effects of steel on crack sections are 1965 feet and 285 feet respectively, which occupy 87.3
and 13.7 % of the whole section length. In order to investigate the
The cracks were typed into two types according to the location of effect of the geotextile on the performance of the bonded CRCP, the
the crack, one type is above transverse steel and the other type is crack numbers of the geotextile and non-geotextile sections at dif-
between the transverse steel. The crack numbers of different ages ferent ages are calculated and shown in Fig. 7 with the ratio of sec-
were statistically analyzed, and are illustrated in Fig. 6. The result tion crack number to the total crack number at that stage. The de-
shows that the crack number increases with time during the early creasing crack number ratio of non-geotextile section and
age, the crack numbers of June 3rd and June 4th account for 63.4 and increasing crack number ratio of non-geotextile section with time
84.4 % of the total crack number until June 13, which means the show that the pavement cracks earlier in the non-geotextile section
developing speed of crack decreases with time. than in the geotextile section.
At the same time, the cracks located above the transverse steel
are much more than those between transverse steel, the ratios of the TABLE 3—Ratios of the crack number of the geotextile and non-geotextile sec-
crack number above the transverse steel to the total number at the tions to the length of that section at three ages.
investigated stage are 88.0, 82.5, and 80.8 % respectively. This is
because of the interface between steel rebar and mortar is the weak Crack number to length ratio (crack/mile)
location. When the stress induced by the temperature and humidity Section June 3rd June 4th June 13th
variations during the early age increased to be more than the bond- Geotextile section 607 858 1034
ing strength of the steel rebar-mortar interfaces, the crack imitates. Non-geotextile section 1167 1222 1333
As introduced before, 20 JCP joints were not covered by the Whole section 680 905 1072
geotextile, hence the lengths of the geotextiel and non-geotextile
778 JOURNAL OF TESTING AND EVALUATION
FIG. 8—Deflection of the CRCP overlay under the loading plate.
When the ratio are compare, the ratios of the crack number of
the geotextile section to the total crack number are less than the
length ratio 87.3 %, and the ratios of the crack number of the non-
geotextile section to the total crack number are more than length
ratio 13.7 %. At the same time, the ratios of the crack number of the
geotextile and non-geotextile sections to the length of that section
at the three ages are analyzed and illustrated in Table 3. All the ra-
tios of the crack number of the geotextile section are less than that
of the whole section, while the ratios of the crack number of the
non-geotextile section are opposite. The character is essentially
same as the analysis above and reveals that the non-geotextile sec-
tion is easier to crack than the geotextile section during the early
age. And the different crack number ratios indicate the geotextile
has the potential to reduce the bonded CRCP overlay crack.
Deflection Characterization of Continuously
Reinforced Bonded Concrete Overlay
The FWD testing was run on the overlay at June 4, when it was 11
days after the construction. The CRCP overlay deflections under
the loading plate at the locations of underlying JCP joint and mid-
slab were measured, and the deflections of the overlay from Slab 1
to Slab 140 of underlying JCP are shown in Fig. 8.
The deflections range from 0.470 mil to 2.567 mils. Compared
with testing results obtained before the CRCP construction, the de-
flections of the pavement decreased enormously, which indicates
the CRCP overlay has a good structural performance. What should
be noted is that maximum deflection occurred at the location of
Slab 114 of the JCP, which is the same as the case from the previous
testing. This phenomenon illustrates the strength of the underlying
slab affects the performance of the bonded CRCP overlay a lot. On
the other hand, generally, the overlay deflections at the location of
the underlying JCP joint are larger than those at the location of the
underlying JCP midslab, which shows the underlying joints have
some weakened effects on the overlay. Hence, before the bonded
CRCP construction, the distressed JCP should be repaired.
In order to know the influence of the geotxtile on the overlay
further, we compared the CRCP deflections of the geotextile sec-
tion with those of the non-geotextile section. The CRCP overlay
deflections of the non-geotextile section distribute relatively con-
centrated, while those of the geotextile section distribute more
separately. This difference means the overlay of the geotextile sec-
tion may have more debonding potential at the JCP joint location
than that of the non-geotextile section. When the CRCP debonds
from the JCP, it deflects more, and prevents reflecting of the JCP
joint.
Conclusions
A distressed JCP section in Sherman, Texas had been repaired by
methods including full-depth repair, under-sealing, and patching,
but the distresses reoccurred soon. In order to fix the problems, the
JCP was investigated by FWD. Most of the deflections were large.
The CRCP was determined as the bonded concrete overlay. Three
and a half slabs of the JCP were cold milled at both ends to increase
the bonding between the CRCP section and un-overlaid JCP sec-
tion. The hook bars were inserted into the JCP slabs to constraint
the movement of the bonded CRCP. 2-ft wide geotextile were
placed above the joints of the JCP to prevent the reflective cracking.
After the construction and curing of the concrete, crack investi-
gation and FWD testing were run on the overlay. The crack devel-
opment and deflection of the bonded CRCP shows that the bonded
CRCP has a good structural performance at the early age. The de-
flections at the JCP joint location are larger than those at the JCP
midslab location, and the maximum deflection appeared at the
same location as the old JCP. This illustrates the underlying condi-
tion affects the CRCP overlay performance, and should be repair
before the overlay construction. The analysis on the crack number
show the geotextile plays an important role in the decrease of the
CRCP overlay cracking. And the deflection comparison results in-
dicate the geotextile may help the overlay to debond at the location
of the JCP joint and to prevent reflective cracking. Results indicate
that the treatments applied in the design and construction were ef-
fective in increasing the structural capacity of the pavement.

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SUN ET AL. ON BONDED CRCP OVERLAY ON JCP 779
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