THE EFFECTIVENESS AND EFFICIENCY OF IMPLEMENTING FAST SET CONCRETE IN REPARATION AND REINSTATEMENT OF CONCRETE PAVEMENTS

Abstract

The 3 components of project management triangle are time, cost and quality. Every parties involve in the construction projects strive to balance these components. In some operational areas like airports, ports, bus depots and other cargo areas, time is the critical factor because many of these areas could not affect to have long period of downtime for construction works. The aim of this research is to determine the advantages of fast set concrete in reparation and reinstatement works in terms of time, cost and quality. In this study, rapid setting patch cement is used to produce fast set concrete. Despite fast set concrete may not be the newest technology in construction industry, the recommended thickness of fast set concrete is limited up to 75mm only. With the persistence of our research engineers and assistance from our suppliers, we made a breakthrough by manipulating the design mix and allow the fast set concrete to remain its optimum performance with thickness up to 400mm. This design mix ratio was applied to fast set concrete projects in Singapore Changi Airport and the project was successfully completed with minimal disruption to airport operations. In terms of quality and time, the fast set concrete can achieve initial compressive strength more than 40MPa at 3 hours and the strength is increasing gradually with time. The reconstruction works were completed during midnights or off-peak closure and caused zero downtime to Changi Airport operation. In the aspect of cost, despite the material cost of fast set concrete is relatively higher than conventional concretes, the overall costs of the construction works of fast set concrete is lower than conventional concretes as it eliminates the downtime and disruptions to the operation areas.