MnROAD SHRP2 R21 Composite Concrete Section Performance after Five-Years of Service

Abstract

The Strategic Highway Research Program (SHRP2) R21 project “Composite Pavements,” completed in 2010 at MnROAD I-94, included both long-term full-scale pavement experiments and the development of new tools for pavement design and analysis. The R21 research focused on both asphalt-over-concrete and concrete-over-concrete (PCC-PCC) pavement systems. This paper focuses on the full-scale PCC-PCC results of the R21 project. Results show that these sections performed very well with no transverse or longitudinal cracking, minimal joint faulting, low IRI values and no obvious durability problems after five years of I-94 traffic. This evaluation also includes analysis of pavement data and a comparison of the PCC-PCC response relative to a conventional single-lift slab. Results indicate very similar performance for similar PCC total thickness and joint design. In addition, the paper also presents the predicted performance of these sections using the AASHTO M-E procedure to the field results at the MnROAD R21 PCC-PCC field sections. This discussion highlights challenges and opportunities in M-E design and performance modeling for PCC-PCC projects.