Performance of Precast Prestressed Concrete Pavements Prestressed at Joints

The precast prestressed cornrele pavement (PPCP), which allows rapid execution of repair works such as these on intersections, is inasinglyuse1 these days. It contains many joints that conventionally take the form of dowel bars, which, however, are reported to be vuhierable to damage by rainwater seepage and other factors. To overcome this drawback, the authors have been working on the development of a new joint system where PPCP slabs are connected by means of prestressed joints. After its advantages were conformed in basic laboratory tests, the new system was experimentally put into practice in an actual paving work. Five years have passed since then, and the prestressed joints prove to be in good witdilion without any noticeable damage such as faulting. Loading tests are carried out to study clesely the conditions of the slabs and joints in this study. Subsequent numerical data analysis confirmed that both the PPCP slabs and joints are showing elastic behavior and that the joints remain in good condition without causing faulting under the design wheel load, despite the fact that they have been subjected to repeated loading for five years.