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Conventional Concrete Pavements
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Concrete Paving-General
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About
Leadership
Members
Associate Members
Awards
Energy and Environment Awards
2023 Energy and Environment Award Winners
Safety Innovation Awards
2023 Safety Innovation Award Winners
Gleason Awards
Gleason Awards Winners
2023 Chairman's Safety Performance Award Winners
Meetings and Events
PCA Webinars
Archived Meetings
Professional Staff
Careers
Cement and Concrete
How Cement Is Made
Cement-Specific Materials
Resiliency
Disasters
Codes
Livability
Carbon Footprint
Durability
Energy Efficiency
Rebuilding Resilient: Breezy Point
Products
Architectural and Decorative Concrete
Concrete Masonry Units
High-Strength Concrete
Insulating Concrete Forms
Prestressed Concrete
Ready Mixed Concrete
Tilt-Up Concrete
Working with Concrete
Air-Entrained Concrete
Placing and Finishing Concrete
Working Safely With Concrete
Cement & Concrete Basics FAQs
Sustainability
Roadmap to Carbon Neutrality
Portland-Limestone Cement
PCR & EPDs
Lifecycle Emissions
Sustainable Design
Sustainability & Codes
Green Rating Systems
Carbon Uptake
Economics
Dashboard
Dashboard Tutorial
Dashboard Access Instructions
Economic Briefings
PCA Spring 2022 Cement Outlook
PCA Fall 2021 Cement Outlook
PCA Summer 2021 Cement Outlook
Cement Outlook Briefing - April 2021
PCA Spring 2021 Cement Outlook
Cement Outlook Briefing - March 2021
Cement Outlook Briefing - February 2021
Cement Outlook Briefing - January 2021
Forecasts
State and Regional Data
Regional US Outlooks
PCA East, North, Central, & Mid Atlantic Regional Outlook May 2022
PCA West Regional Outlook May 2022
PCA Southeast US Regional Outlook May 2022
PCA Central US Regional Outlook May 2022
PCA New England US Regional Outlook May 2022
Apparent Use
State & Market US Summary (13 Categories, 1 Year)
State & Market (46 Categories, 1 year)
State & Market Trend (46 Categories, 20 years)
Construction PIP by State (23 Categories, 20 years)
PCA Market Intelligence Special Reports
Resiliency Potential in the Wildfire-Prone Single-Family Market October 2020
Long-Term Masonry Market Outlook
The Potential Impact of Tariffs Levied Against Chinese Cement
Railway-Related Cement Consumption Outlook
Trump Infrastructure: Potential Taxpayer Savings from the Use of Life Cycle Cost Analysis (LCCA)
Attitudes & Perceptions Study: Soil Cement, FDR and RCC Pavement Market
Tariffs Impact on Cement Consumption
Long Term Cement Pavement Consumption Outlook
Special Reports Archive
Energy-Related Cement Consumption, September 2017
Bridge Market Assessment, August 2017
Airport-Related Cement Consumption Outlook, July 2017
U.S. Cement Manufacturing Capacity, February 2017
"The Wall" Impact on Cement Consumption, February 2017
Stronger Sentiment, Higher Interest Rates, January 2017
State Highway Paving, January 2017
The Implications of the Debt Crisis on Cement Consumption
Effects of Extreme Earthquakes in Central Turkey
Monitor Outlook Plus
More Reports
U.S. Cement Industry Annual Yearbook
U.S. Portland Cement Industry: Plant Information Summary
Competitive Materials Report
Labor-Energy Input Survey
Survey of Portland Cement by User Group
Meet the Experts
Edward Sullivan
David Zwicke
Brian Schmidt
Joseph Chiappe
Trevor Storck
Kaitlin Beer
Wilena Tate
Brenden Hebert
Sohail Khan
Emily McCarthy
PCA Regional Economic Conferences
Issues & Advocacy
Legislative Priorities
Transportation & Infrastructure Priorities
Energy & Environment Priorities
Tax Priorities
Regulatory Priorities
Energy & Environment Regulatory Priorities
Transportation Regulatory Priorities
Occupational Health & Safety Regulatory Priorities
State Resources
State Legislative Tracker
State Regulatory Tracker
Meet the Team
Sean O'Neill
Tom Harman
Josh Reiner
Louis Baer
Katy Hartnett
Jennifer Bonner
Christine McCarthy
Newsroom
PCA In The News
Engage
Resilient Design & Construction Toolkit
Hurricane Resiliency Toolkit
Sustainable Cement & Concrete Manufacturing Toolkit
Sustainable Cement & Concrete Construction Toolkit
Supporters of LCCA
Concrete Paving-General
There are four types of concrete pavement:
Plain pavements with dowels that use dowels to provide load transfer and prevent faulting,
Plain pavements without dowels, in which aggregate interlock transfers loads across joints and prevents faulting,
Conventionally reinforced pavements that contain steel reinforcement and use dowels in contraction joints, and
Continuously reinforced pavements that have no contraction joints and are reinforced with continuous longitudinal steel.
To prepare for paving, the subgrade-the native soil on which the pavement is built-must be graded and compacted. Preparation of the subgrade is often followed by the placing of a subbase-a layer of material that lies immediately below the concrete. The essential function of the subbase is to prevent the displacement of soil from underneath the pavement. Subbases may be constructed of granular materials, cement-treated materials, lean concrete, or open-graded, highly-permeable materials, stabilized or unstabilized. Once the subbase has hardened sufficiently to resist marring or distortion by construction traffic, dowels, tiebars, or reinforcing steel are placed and properly aligned in preparation for paving.
There are two methods for paving with concrete—slipform and fixed form. In slipform paving, a machine rides on treads over the area to be paved-similar to a train moving on a set of tracks. Fresh concrete is deposited in front of the paving machine which then spreads, shapes, consolidates, screeds, and float finishes the concrete in one continuous operation. This operation requires close coordination between the concrete placement and the forward speed of the paver.
In fixed-form paving, stationary metal forms are set and aligned on a solid foundation and staked rigidly. Final preparation and shaping of the subgrade or subbase is completed after the forms are set. Forms are cleaned and oiled first to ensure that they release from the concrete after the concrete hardens. Once concrete is deposited near its final position on the subgrade, spreading is completed by a mechanical spreader riding on top of the preset forms and the concrete. The spreading machine is followed by one or more machines that shape, consolidate, and float finish the concrete. After the concrete has reached a required strength, the forms are removed and curing of the edges begins immediately.
After placing and finishing concrete pavements, joints are sawcut to control cracking. Once joints have been inserted, the surface must be textured. To obtain the desired amount of skid resistance, texturing should be done just after the water sheen has disappeared and just before the concrete becomes non-plastic. Texturing is done using burlap drag, artificial-turf drag, wire brooming, grooving the plastic concrete with a roller or comb equipped with steel tines, or a combination of these methods. The chosen method of texturing depends on the environment, and the speed and density of expected traffic. Curing begins immediately after finishing operations and as soon as the surface will not be marred by the curing medium. Common curing methods involve using white pigmented liquid membrane curing compounds. Occasionally, curing is accomplished by waterproof paper or plastic covers such as polyethylene sheets, or wet cotton mats or burlap.
As the concrete pavement hardens, it contracts and cracks. If the contraction joints have been correctly designed and constructed, the cracks will occur below the joints. Otherwise, shrinkage cracks will develop. As the concrete continues to contract, the joints and/or cracks will open-providing room for the concrete to expand in hot weather and in moist conditions. Once the pavement hardens, the joints are cleaned and sealed to exclude foreign material that would be damaging to the concrete when it expands. The pavement is opened to traffic after the specified curing period and when tests indicate that the concrete has reached the required strength. Immediately before the pavement is opened to public traffic, the shoulders are finished and the pavement is cleaned.