Paver-Compacted Concrete, a New and Innovative Method of Constructing Road Pavements Exposed to Heavy Traffic

The world-wide debate on suitable economic measures to improve mobility and energy efficiency has also led to the development of new and innovative construction materials and methods as a way of solving the problem of how to pave roads and trafficked areas economically. One such innovation is paver-compacted concrete, or PCC. This is an interesting technical and economic improvement on roller-compacted concrete. PCC is placed with conventional asphalt pavers and newly developed concrete compaction screeds. The principle difference between PCC and roller-compacted concrete (RCC) is that the former is placed by means of a high-power compaction screed fitted with compaction units that simultaneously tamp, vibrate and compress the concrete to obtain the required degree of compaction (DPr, mod. ? 96 %). There is thus no need for subsequent compaction of the pavement by rolling, as is the case for RCC, for example. This innovative technical development thus enables a high pavement quality to be achieved. PCC pavements meet all the requirements for roads exposed to heavy traffic as regards the relevant parameters such as the longitudinal and transverse evenness of the pavement, surface texture, paving width and depth and the road profile. At the same time, PCC has huge advantages in terms of time and cost savings as there is no need to compact the pavement with rollers. There are a wide variety of applications for PCC in road construction. Not only can it be used for the base course of classified roads but also as the combined base and wearing course of many pavements and secondary trafficked areas as well as for agricultural and forest roads, not to mention cycle paths and footways. Paver-compacted concrete is a simple and economic technology with which heavy-duty, highquality concrete pavements can be constructed.