Rehabilitation of jointed Portland cement concrete pavements : specific pavement studies 6--initial evaluation and analysis

10257382128697392005Final reportRichter, Cheryl AllenPDFTech ReportFHWA-RD-01-169;NTIS-PB2006115203DTFH61-96-C-00003Concrete pavementsReinforced concrete pavementsPortland cement concretePavement maintenanceField testsTemperature endurance testsRehabilitation (Maintenance)Evaluation and assessmentUnited States. Federal Highway AdministrationAmbroz, Joanna K.Darter, Michael I.Applied Research Associates. ERES DivisionUnited States. Federal Highway Administration. Office of Infrastructure Research and DevelopmentNTL-HIGHWAY/ROAD TRANSPORTATION-Pavement Management and PerformanceNTL-HIGHWAY/ROAD TRANSPORTATION-Construction and MaintenanceFederal Highway AdministrationThe Specific Pavement Studies 6 (SPS-6) experiment, "Rehabilitation of Jointed Portland Cement Concrete Pavements," was designed as a controlled field experiment that focuses on the study of specific rehabilitation design features of jointed plain concrete pavements (JPCP) and jointed reinforced concrete pavements (JRCP). This experiment examines the effects of climatic regions (wet-freeze, wet-no freeze, dry-freeze, or dry-no freeze), type of concrete pavement (plain or reinforced), condition of existing pavement prior to rehabilitation (fair or poor), and traffic rate (as a covariant), incorporating the different methods of rehabilitation with and without asphalt concrete (AC) overlays. This report documents the first comprehensive review and evaluation of the SPS-6 experiment. Fourteen SPS-6 projects have been constructed. At each site, there are eight core sections plus various numbers of supplemental sections. Data availability and completeness for the SPS-6 experiment are good overall. In general, most of the data are at the releasable level E status. However, some data, such as traffic, climatic, and materials data, are not yet available in the Information Management System (IMS) database. These deficiencies need to be addressed before a comprehensive analysis of the SPS-6 experiment is conducted. The required experimental design factors were compared with the actual constructed values. This includes both the site condition factors and the pavement design features. Most SPS-6 sections follow the experimental design for the great majority of the design factors. Three of the 14 sites are still relatively new and, therefore, do not have much data available at this time. It is believed that the information has been collected and is in the process of being entered into the IMS database. This evaluation has shown that several significant problems clearly limit the results that can be obtained from the SPS-6 experiment. Specifically, no SPS-6 projects were built in certain climatic regions. Some SPS-6 sites have construction deviations, and significant materials data and traffic data are missing from other sites or sections. However, even though the SPS-6 sections are relatively young, some interesting and important early trends have already been identified that will be useful to the rehabilitation of jointed portland cement concrete pavements. As time and traffic loadings accumulate, much more valuable performance data will be obtained. It is believed that even more results can be obtained if a concerted effort is made to obtain missing data (materials, traffic, climate, and monitoring) and to perform proper analyses of the data. Specific recommendations for further analyses are included