Continuously Reinforced Concrete Pavements (Mar 1992)

Continuously reinforced concrete (CRC) pavements have the feature that the longitudinal reinforcement is continuous for the entire length of the pavement. Other than end-of day construction joints there are no transverse joints in CRC pavements. By balancing concrete properties, thickness and the amount of reinforcement, fine transverse cracks are developed in the preferred spacing range of 1—2 m. These cracks are prevented from opening, but not from occurring, by the longitudinal reinforcement. CRC pavements using deformed-bar reinforcement were introduced to Australia in 1975. Since that time 26 sections of CRC have been constructed or are scheduled for construction. The total length is about 320 lane km. CRC pavements have been covered in previous issues of Road Note, Nos. 9 and 19. This issue of Road Note brings the Australian CRC experience up to date. Included are performance reports on the first two deformed-bar CRC projects, an inventory of Australian CRC usage, current CRC projects and current procedures for reinforcement design.