The rehabilitation of the Ring Road of the city of Antwerp is the largest and most discussed road construction project undertaken in Belgium within the last decades. The Antwerp Ring Road is one of the most trafficked urban freeways of European importance. Six radial freeways are tying into it and...
Continuously Reinforced Concrete Pavement for Combined Tram – Busway in Gent, Belgium
The project concerns the design and supervision of construction for the realisation of a new combined tramway and bus lane linking the main railway station of Gent (Belgium) with the exhibition halls at Flanders Expo. Fundamental criteria for the design included the durability of the pavement, a pleasing appearance compatible...
Design Philosophy of a Concrete Bone Roundabout (CBR)
The Netherlands has made a clear decision to increase traffic mobility by reducing the use of traffic lights wherever possible. If traffic lights are not to be used, crossings need to be changed. The easiest solution is to change crossings into roundabouts and this solution (depending of the volume of...
Concrete with Exposed Aggregates Experiences in Germany
Concrete road surfaces with useful properties and a long useful life have been constructed for many decades, but further development is still required due to changing boundary conditions. Here, the important challenges are the increase in traffic load as well as specific requirements to traffic safety, environmental compatibility and economic...
Durability of Texture of Concrete Pavements
The durability of concrete pavement depends on its load bearing capacity and the performance properties of the surface texture during use. During wet weather conditions the textured surface should provide good tyre grip for safety reasons. In recent years increased focus has been placed on the noise emitted by road...
Implementation Aspects of the Steenokkerzeel Bypass Road
Early in 2005 the Steenokkerzeel bypass road was opened for traffic. This road forms a type of ring road around Steenokkerzeel centre. This new road was linked to the centre via roundabouts in two places. The bypass road as well as both roundabouts were laid in continuously reinforced concrete, the...
Ultra Fast-Track Concrete Paving Belgian Experience
For three years the Roads and Traffic Administration (AWV) of Flemish Brabant in Belgium has been using the technique of ultrafast-track (UFT) concrete paving for the rehabilitation of several road sections. The aim is to achieve a compressive strength of 40 N/mm² on cores after 30 to 36 h of...
Fibre Concrete Mixes Blending Plain and Reinforced Concrete
Fibrous concrete has a history in pavements. In the 80ties fibrous concrete became popular thanks to pperspectives such as reduced pavement thickness and increased joint distances. Unfortunately, not all promises were kept and the fibrous concrete silently disappeared from the pavement construction scene. However, in industrial floor construction material research...
Transformation of the N49 Antwerp-Knokke into the Highway E34
This article gives an overview of the work that has been done so far to transform the N49 Antwerp- Knokke into highway E34. The work involved fits in with the major overhaul of the N49 between Antwerp and Knokke as far as the E34 motorway. According to the Flanders Regional...
Constructing High Performance Concrete Pavements Using the FHWA Hiperpav Systems Analysis Software
Sponsored by the U.S. Department of Transportation, Federal Highway Administration, HIPERPAV (HIgh PERformance concrete PAVing) is a software tool capable of predicting the early-age behavior of concrete pavements. HIPERPAV successfully integrates materials, pavement design, climate, and construction operations into an easy to use Windows-based software package. Using a systems approach,...
Storage and Infiltration of Rain Water Through Permeable Paving Blocks a First Step to Disconnect – Results of a Belgian Research Project
Water-permeable paving is used to minimize the far-reaching adverse effects produced by sealing off the natural water balance. The risk of flooding during thunderstorms by water running off the surface or by overflow from sewer pipes is strongly reduced by the immediate absorption and subsequent storage of water in the...
Concrete Pavement in the Streets of Access to Paranaguá Port in the South of Brazil Portside Area Revitalization
The objective of the concrete pavement construction design of the main access streets to all Paranagua Port Terminals was to improve the traffic of trucks which transport goods being imported into and exported out of Brazil. Concrete pavement was the final engineering design chosen for this job due to the...