Operation Experiences on Concrete Pavements During the Last 10 Years in Hungary

Since the middle of 90s in Hungary the permanent deformations of semi-rigid asphalt pavements have become a major problem due to increasing traffic and changing climate conditions. It has been a particular challenge concerning the M0 motorway around Budapest exposed to the most serious heavy vehicle traffic. The preceding test sections provided the base to update regulations and realisation of the first motorway built with cement concrete pavement. The building and operating experiences of the following motorway sections led to continuous modifications and feedback in regulations. Sections put into operation until 2010 have been constructed as single layer doweled concrete pavement. Since 2009 the M0 Southern section has been built as a two layer doweled concrete pavement with exposed aggregate. Operator claimed for cement concrete pavement also on the bridges which required special solution. Up to now the operation and maintenance yielded experiences mostly with one-course surfaces, mainly slab edge and corner breakings, joint sealing turns, cracks and slab peelings. So far, the applied repair methods, mostly resin-bound surface dressings have not given satisfactory solution due to significantly shorter durability. Experiments are in progress to test application of the possible repair materials.