European Long-Life Rigid Pavement

The European Long-Life Pavement Group (ELLPAG) was formed in 2000 as a working group by the Forum of European National Highway Research Laboratories (FEHRL) members, under the auspices of the Conference of European Directors, to report the current state of knowledge on long-life pavements in Europe, in particular on the practical issues of how to design, build and maintain pavements to give long structural lives. This paper highlights the important findings of the third phase of the project which reviews the current state-of-the-art of long-life rigid pavements. The review includes designs and construction practices of jointed and continuously reinforced concrete pavements, techniques for assessment and upgrading, maintenance and rehabilitation, and economic assessment. Whole life cost analysis of long-life pavements has been shown by ELLPAG to be a useful tool for evaluating their applications. The paper discusses why such analysis tool has not been fully developed for rigid pavements.