CONTINUOUSLY REINFORCED CONCRETE PAVEMENTS: A REPORT OF THE STUDY GROUP

Continuously reinforced concrete pavements are widely used in the USA and also in Belgium. A study group of British engineers has visited both these countries to study the design, construction and performance of this type of pavement. The concept of continuously reinforced concrete pavements is that cracks will occur at intervals of between 1.5 and 2.5 metres but that these cracks will be kept tightly closed by the reinforcement thus maintaining load transfer across the cracks by aggregate interlock. No special construction equipment is necessary for continuously reinforced concrete pavements and there is no restriction on length other than a minimum of 1504. The study group have concluded that for heavily trafficked roads the slab thickness for a continuously reinforced concrete pavement may be 30 mm less than that required for a jointed concrete pavement; this is associated with a steel percentage of 0.6 the initial cost of a continuously reinforced concrete pavement is likely to be greater than that of a jointed concrete pavement for the same traffic conditions. Maintenance requirements are less and for heavily trafficked urban roads where delay costs due to maintenance operations may be high there could be economic advantages in the use of continuously reinforced concrete pavements. /Author/