PRC-325.12-26: Design of Jointed Concrete Pavements for Streets and Local Roads—Guide

Abstract:

This guide provides a perspective on a balanced combination of pavement thickness, drainage, and subbase or subgrade materials to achieve an acceptable pavement system for streets and local roads. Such concrete pavements designed for low volumes of traffic—typically less than 100 trucks per day, one-way—have historically provided satisfactory performance when proper support and drainage conditions exist. Recommendations are presented for designing a concrete pavement system for a low volume of traffic and associated joint pattern based upon limiting the stresses in the concrete or, in the case of reinforced slabs, maintaining the cracks in a tightly closed condition. Details for designing the distributed reinforcing steel and the load transfer devices are given, if required. The thickness design of low-volume concrete pavements is based on the principles developed by the American Cement Association and others for analyzing an elastic slab over a dense liquid subgrade, as modified by field observations and extended to include fatigue concepts.

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