(upbeat jingle)
- [Narrator] As some concrete pavements
near the end of their design lives,
the Texas Department of Transportation is looking at future
cost-effective rehab programs for those roadways.
Working with the Center for Multidisciplinary
Research and Transportation, TechMRT looks to train staff
that will evaluate existing pavement
and develop overly strategies
when replacement becomes necessary.
- Texas has many, many miles
of jointed to the concrete pavement.
Some of them are very old, so they need some rehabilitation,
but unfortunately we don't really have a good rehab options
for those old concrete pavement.
- We wanted a rehab strategy to be able to determine
if an overlay was an acceptable method
for that particular section that was having distress.
So one of the concepts we came up with
was putting a CRC overlay on top
of some of these jointed pavements.
- [Moon] We really needed an optimum.
We have option for jointed concrete pavement
that led to the development of this research project.
- [Andy] We actually constructed a overlay
of that type of CRC on top of a jointed concrete pavement.
- [Moon] We found out that the quality control
during the construction is very important.
- [Andy] Like surface prep of the existing pavement,
so that way we get adequate bond of the overlay.
And then just the things for mix design.
You know, what mix design should we be using
in terms of the concrete.
We learned a lot of aspects in terms of what would promote
long-term performance of the overlay in particular project.
- [Moon] This was an implementation project in Paris.
So it was around, what, nine 10th of a mile project?
- [Andy] So the researchers went through the design process
and worked with the district, say,
"For that section, let's build a five inch thick overlay
on top of your pavement."
And then so they did that.
We led the project, it was awarded,
and then the contractor recently finished it last year.
But it was all an actual construction project
to show that the implementation
of the design concept does work.
- The future plan is that we will monitor
the performance of this pavement section
under the ongoing Digital Pavement Database project.
- It's in terms of a cost savings,
because now instead of a complete reconstruction
of a fairly distressed pavement,
we have to tear up the whole road,
close it down for an extended period of time
to redo a complete re reconstruction.
We could do it in phases now.
We could keep traffic open, do the overlay on one side,
switch traffic over, do the overlay on the other side,
and then we have a brand new pavement surface.
So saves time for disruption for the traveling public,
and also saves cost because a five inch overlay
is definitely a lot cheaper
than going full death reconstruction
of maybe a 14 inch thick pavement structure now.
So in terms of of cost,
it's definitely a cost saving rehabilitation strategy.
- [Narrator] For more information
and to find the publication for this project,
please visit the TxDOT Research Library
at the link shown below.