The The Maturity Concept for Early Opening of Concrete Pavements – The Underutilized Opportunity

The maturity method for determining early strength of concrete nondestructively has been available for decades. FHWA has been demonstrating this technology through what is now called the Mobile Concrete Technology Center, since the late 1980’s. Some state agencies have adopted maturity testing into their standard specifications and have used it to accelerate construction and thereby save money and lives. Unfortunately, many states that have developed specifications for a maturity procedure have not found wide use of them because they are too complicated and not field friendly. What is needed is a Maturity procedure specifically for concrete paving that is less rigid and field friendly. The Iowa DOT began allowing opening to traffic to occur based on maturity testing for strength in 1997. It has been used almost exclusively for over 25 years, based on a simple, field friendly, contractor option specification. No pavement cracks or failures have been reported over those years due to traffic driving on pavement too soon. This paper outlines the holistic approach for the use of maturity to monitor early age strength in concrete that is used for paving. It includes a discussion of the barriers that have restricted wider use in the past. The advantages offered by a modernized and simpler approach will be explained. Experiences with the use of this method will be presented. New technologies that are presently available will be described.