Design Recommendations for Short Continuously Reinforced Concrete Pavement

Abstract

Four short (50 m) sections of continuously reinforced concrete pavement (CRCP) were constructed as a proposed solution for bus stops and terminals, critical areas of public infrastructure. Initial analysis revealed that these short CRCP sections exhibited distinct cracking behavior compared to traditional CRCP. To better understand their performance, a combination of ultrasonic testing and stress simulations was conducted. This paper presents key findings from stress simulations, which account for various pavement parameters as well as traffic and environmental loads. These simulations aim to develop rapid, reliable, and intuitive design recommendations for short CRCP applications. Additionally, a fatigue model was applied to assess the performance of the experimental sections. This approach successfully identified the causes of three failures, which were traced to thickness deficiencies detected by ultrasonic testing.