Crack Behaviour of Continuously Reinforced Concrete Pavements

The use of continuously reinforced concrete pavements (CRCP) is well spread in Belgium, mainly because of the confidence in its durability. It is used frequently on Belgian motorways and also on other heavily trafficked roads. The behaviour of CRCP is influenced by a number of specific characteristics such as the crack pattern, the crack distances and crack widths, but also by the movement of the pavement due to temperature variations, both seasonal and day-night. In the past, several studies and monitoring of performance have led to recommendations in the design of CRCP. In controlling the crack distances and the crack widths in CRCP, which is important, many different reinforcement percentages and tensile strengths of the concrete have been applied in the former and current design characteristics. Current contribution describes a number of observations and experiments conducted in the last decades with respect to the crack distances for the modern fine exposed aggregate concrete surfaces.