Hard Shoulders on Autobahns

Hard shoulders provide space for vehicles to stop in an emergency. They additionally provide space to function as traffic lane to keep traffic moving in the customary number of lanes if part of the carriageways is closed for repair measures. In the case of concrete pavements, the structural design and layer thickness of hard shoulders are usually the same as those of the carriageways. The longitudinal dummy joint between hard shoulders and carriageways is placed at the shoulder edge. The stresses in the right-hand lane generated by vehicle loading are thus much reduced. Pavement construction by means of the slipform technique enables the construction of carriageways and hard shoulders in one operation.