Concrete slit drains (also known as slot drains see fig. 1,2) are being used for the draining of highways and roads, as well as for large handling and parking areas. Recently, this system of drainage has become increasingly applied, which does, however, bring with it an increased incidence of...
Failures of Concrete Slit Drains Caused by Negative Effect of their Erroneous Integration Into Surrounding Multi-Layer Road Systems
How to Build Smooth Concrete Roads and Measure Success the Moment You Pave
The Strategic Highway Research Program 2 (SHRP 2) recently completed a study entitled, Real-Time Smoothness Measurements on Portland Cement Concrete Pavements during Construction. As part of this project, the feasibility of this technology was explored. There was both an evaluation and demonstration of emerging and proven technologies. Model specifications and...
Concrete Pavement on Bicycle Trails
On the beginning of third millennium we, in the Czech Republic, can also notice a big construction boom in the area of bicycle roads and trails. The rehabilitation of existing roads, temporary solutions (e.g. traffic sign placement) overweight the others. Other systematic approaches are also built and they bring a...
Advancing the Use of Continuously Reinforced Concrete Pavement in the USA
The use of continuously reinforced concrete pavement (CRCP) is enjoying a renaissance in the United States (USA). CRCP has the potential to provide a long-term, zero-maintenance, service life under heavy traffic loadings and challenging environmental conditions, provided proper design and quality construction practices are utilized. In the USA, the Federal...
Pavement Type Hysteresis and Truck Rolling Resistance
Portland Cement Concrete (PCC) pavements usually incur higher investment costs than Asphalt Concrete (AC) alternatives. In a life cycle analysis the higher cost is justified by lower maintenance costs, less and fewer traffic flow intrusions, and a longer technical life. All these factors contribute to a reduction of the carbon...
Surface Stresses of Thick Concrete Pavement Slabs Due To Traffic Loads and Non-Linear Temperature Distributions
In this study, possibility of top-down cracking in concrete pavement was investigated. The main cause of the crack is supposed to be tensile stress at the top of the concrete slab. 3DFEM simulations that took into account actual temperature distributions throughout slab depth were performed on concrete pavements for a...
Methodology for Establishing Permanent Curl/Warp Temperature Gradients in Jointed Plain Concrete Pavements
Jointed plain concrete pavements curl due to temperature gradients and warp in the presence of drying shrinkage gradients. Since this deformation is restrained by factors, such as the slab self-weight, tensile stresses are generated. Slabs do not remain flat in the absence of daily gradients. This is due to the...
Structural Modeling of Rigid Pavement with Load-rate Dependent Subgrade
It has been observed by many researchers that the subgrade behavior is load rate dependent. The apparent subgrade stiffness is much higher under the fast moving axle loading than during the slow developing temperature curling and moisture warping. However, traditionally a single k-value is used for both curling and axle...
Causes and effects of longitudinal shrinkage and temperature stresses on JPCP for Dutch conditions
In 2010 Houben has published a paper on the modelling of the process of cracking at transverse joints in jointed plain concrete pavements (JPCP). Houben uses equations from the standard Eurocode 2 for the time-dependent concrete properties and considers the thermal deformation and the shrinkage (drying and autogenous) for different...
Evaluation of the Linear Damage Assumption in JPCP Bottom-up Fatigue Cracking
Current pavement design guides for Jointed Plain Concrete Pavements define one critical location at the mid-slab edge and assume that damage accumulates linearly and can be described via S-N curves. More recently, experiments have shown that damage does not accumulate linearly and a pronounced stress range effect exists. These two...
Effect of Nonuniform Foundation Support on Concrete Slab Responses
The ability to spatially map the stiffness of the foundation layers under concrete pavements with intelligent compaction has created a need to define limits on the allowable stiffness variations in a given construction area as well as the maximum size of a non-complaint area which does not require remedial action....
Technical and Economical Feasibility of Pavement Widenings in Cement Concrete in the Netherlands
In 2009 the Dutch Parliament amended special laws to speed up road widening projects. This situation opened possibilities for sustainable concrete pavements needing less maintenance, especially for the right-hand lane that takes the heavy traffic. This paper presents the results of a study carried out in 2009, by a working...