DESIGNING FOR QUALITY, CONCRETE PAVEMENT REHABILITATION AND RECYCLING ON WISCONSIN'S INTERSTATE HIGHWAYS

Abstract

This report presents the concepts, design parameters, and construction aspects of reconstructing 51.5 km. (32 miles) of Interstate 90/94 in Dane and Columbia counties between Madison and Portage, at a cost of 70 million dollars. A main feature of the project is first time"use of all epoxy coated steel in the continuously reinforced concrete pavement. Two major design problems were addressed and solved simultaneously, the problem of highway capacity and that of how best to rehabilitate an aging, 23 year old concrete highway. Except for 6.8 km. (4.2 miles) of existing 23 year old CRCP which was still providing excellent service, the existing (mesh and dowel reinforced) concrete pavement was removed, crushed to meet standard specification coarse aggregates for concrete, and recycled into the new overlay. The principal features of this innovative project are: a third lane was added to both roadways with no increase in existing R/W, existing jointed mesh and dowel pavement was replaced with CRCP, 3.05 meter (ten feet) concrete shoulders were constructed on all sides, all reinforcing steel is epoxy coated, all longitudinal reinforcement was placed on transverse bars on chairs, the existing pavement was recycled into coarse aggregate for the new concrete, existing CRCP and bridges received a bonded concrete overlay, all the new pavement was constructed during the 1984 construction season, both roadways and all interchanges remained open throughout construction.