European Concrete Pavement Trial Project in the USA

The State of Michigan in the United States of America constructed a trial project that incorporated highway pavement design features from Germany and Austria. The project considered a 25.4 cm unreinforced concrete pavement, over a 15.2 cm lean concrete base, over a 40.6 cm granular frost layer. The concrete pavement was constructed in two layers (wet on wet) and included an exposed aggregate surface treatment. This 1.6 km trial length was completed in the fall of 1993. Michigan's standard concrete pavement design was also constructed in this project, which will serve as a basis for comparison. The standard Michigan concrete pavement section consists of 28 cm reinforced concrete pavement, over a 10.2 open graded drainage course over a 30 cm granular subbase. This paper compares the differences in concrete pavement design philosophies, including cost data, along with describing differences in construction methods. The testing programme that will be used to compare the performance of these pavement sections with regard to strength, surface Iriel.uori dliii Irdiulu lIuiu is discussed. Preliminary findings from this tcsting programmo aro presented.