Crack Survey on a Field Test of Continuously-Reinforced-Concrete Pavement (CRCP) Using Prefabricated Steel-Bar Mesh-Panels

Abstract

Continuously-reinforced-concrete-pavement (CRCP) is rational and durable in concrete pavement construction because concrete joint can be decreased by the effect of longitudinal reinforcing bars. Note is that the CRCP is a troublesome construction system that requires generally labor intensive for bonding of each reinforcing bars at site. In our previous studies, a prefabricated steel-bar mesh-panel system was developed to reduce the labor work at CRCP construction site. The prefabrication system can contribute to shortening construction time and to decreasing labor cost. On the other hand, long-term period for curing concrete is needed even in the CRCP construction using steel-mesh-panels. To achieve more rational construction of CRCP, the study focused on the use of “Early Opening to Traffic” Concrete Pavement (1DAYPAVE) which was recently developed in Japan. Rapid and rational construction system may be implemented by the combination of prefabricated steel-bar mesh-panels and 1DAYPAVE. Concerns in the novel system are construction difficulty and cracking due to volume change of high early-age concrete. A CRCP road construction test was conducted at the factory of steel-bar mesh-panels to investigate the influence of these concerns. The constructed roads were 55 m long and 5.75 m wide for each combination, C0:general pavement concrete / C1:1DAYPAVE and S0:conventional steel-bars / S1:prefabricated steel-bar mesh-panels. The paper reports 1-year investigation on the cracking of concrete and strain of steel bars in addition to the field construction test.