Precast Prestressed Concrete Pavements for Sustainable Pavement Rehabilitation in the USA

During the last ten years significant progress has been made in the USA to demonstrate precast prestressed concrete pavement (PPCP) technology and the benefits associated with its use for pavement rehabilitation. Precast concrete is receiving broad recognition as a preferred method for the rapid rehabilitation of highway pavements in high-volume traffic corridors where lane closures must be kept to a minimum. The PPCP system is being embraced not only for rapid installation and facilitating the return of the roadway to daily service; but also as long-life sustainable solution to the growing need to rehabilitate pavements that have served admirably since the late 1950s and early 1960s. The primary reasons for using the PPCP technology are two-fold: to accelerate construction during nighttime and other off-peak traffic windows thereby reducing the user delays; and to produce a highly durable long-lasting pavement structure. Additionally, through the use of prestressing, the precast concrete pavement provides significant benefits associated with increased load carrying capacity, improved life cycle cost, and enhanced sustainability. The use of prestressing allows the use of a thinner pavement slab, thereby increasing load carrying capacity while maintaining the elevation of the existing roadway and reducing concrete quantities by up to forty percent compared to conventional jointed concrete pavement alternatives. Furthermore, with fewer working joints following post-tensioning, the prestressed pavement inhibits the ingress of rainwater to the base and offers reductions in anticipated maintenance activities. This paper will discuss sustainability benefits and provide a summary of advances in the use of PPCP in the USA through 2011 that have occurred since the publication of a paper by the authors in the proceedings of the 8th ICCP conference in 2005. Case studies will be presented, in chronological order, for PPCP projects constructed or planned for construction in Missouri, Iowa, Delaware, Indonesia, Virginia, California and Florida. A brief summary of a major adaptation of the PPCP technology for roadways to enhance transportation networks in Indonesia will also be provided.