The Design of Concrete Pavements and Overlays

This paper describes a method developed by the Belgian Road Research Centre for the design of cement concrete pavements and overlays. The object of this method is to avoid fatigue cracking of the surfacing (or overlay) and excessive permanent deformation of the subgrade soil. It results from the application of a model based on the theory of layered elastic slabs. For conditions generally encountered in Belgium (traffic, materials, soils), the application of the method has led to a straightforward display of design solutions (standard structures and charts). The solutions recommended offer a choice between two variants: - Discontinuous slab pavement (or overlay) structures. - Continuously reinforced concrete pavement (or overlay) structures.