Project Level Performance Database for Rigid Pavements in Texas, II

Technical report; 09/2008-08/2010.PDFTech ReportFHWA/TX -11-0-6274-1Report No. 0-6274-1Project 0-6274Rigid pavementsPavement distressContinuously reinforced concrete pavementsDatabasesTexasTexas Tech University. Center for Multidisciplinary Research in TransportationRyu, SungwooSaraf, SureelWon, Moon C.Texas Tech University. College of EngineeringTexas. Dept. of Transportation. Research and Technology Implementation OfficeUnited States. Federal Highway AdministrationNTL-HIGHWAY/ROAD TRANSPORTATION-MaterialsNTL-HIGHWAY/ROAD TRANSPORTATION-Pavement Management and PerformanceNTL-HIGHWAY/ROAD TRANSPORTATION-Construction and MaintenanceNTL-HIGHWAY/ROAD TRANSPORTATION-DesignUS Transportation CollectionOver the years, the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) has built a number of CRCP (continuously reinforcedconcrete pavement) experimental sections to investigate the effects of design, materials, and construction variables on CRCPstructural responses and performance. Design variables include longitudinal reinforcement (percent steel and bar diameter)and slab thickness. Materials variables include coarse aggregate type in concrete. Construction variables include differences inconcrete placement season and curing method. Field evaluations were conducted and findings include; (1) spalling occurred insections with siliceous coarse aggregate 14 years after construction, (2) more cracking was observed at sections with a largeramount of steel, and (3) overall, the performance is excellent. Forensic evaluation conducted on IH40 in the Amarillo Districtshows deficient slab support caused punchout distress. Load transfer efficiency (LTE) at transverse cracks at punchout distressarea was maintained at quite a high level. It appears that LTE is not a good indicator for structural condition of CRCP.Deflection testing using falling weight deflectometer (FWD) continued for Level I test sections. The findings are consistentwith those in the past \ue2\u20ac\u201c LTEs are quite high regardless of crack spacing, pavement age, slab thickness and season of testing(winter vs. summer). Variability in deflections evaluated at 50-ft intervals indicates variations in slab support. TxDOTdeveloped a mechanistic-empirical pavement design software, called TxCRCP-ME, under research project 0-5832. A criticalsoftware element that determines the accuracy of the software is a transfer function. Extensive field evaluations wereconducted to obtain reasonable distress information, since not all distresses are structural-deficiency related. It was found thatthe majority of distresses that are classified as punchouts in the TxDOT PMIS (pavement management information system)are not distresses caused by structural deficiency. They were, rather, caused by issues related to design details, and materialsand construction quality. Efforts were made to estimate traffic information for the development of a transfer function. Thetraffic information in TxDOT PMIS was utilized; however, there were challenges in estimating accurate traffic