FHWA Tech Brief:
 Precast Concrete Pavement Implementation by U.S. Highway Agencies

The Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) has released its, “Precast Concrete Pavement Implementation by U.S. Highway Agencies” (FHWA-HIF-19-011), a seven-page tech brief that provides an overview of precast concrete pavement (PCP) technology and other information about its use throughout the United States.

The tech brief reads, a review of projects constructed in the U.S., as well as field testing of selected projects “indicate that sufficient advances have been made to reliably design and construct PCP systems to achieve five key attributes of successful pavements”.
The five attributes are:

• Constructibility
• Concrete Durability
• Load Transfer at Joints
• Panel Support
• Performance/Efficiency

PCP technology is gaining wider acceptance in the U.S. for rapid repair and rehabilitation of concrete pavements, as well as for reconstruction of heavily trafficked asphalt concrete intersections. Widespread use in the U.S. is fairly recent, with most projects in service less than about 14 years. Nonetheless, dozens of projects have been constructed, and advances continue to be made in all aspects of the technology, including: panel design, fabrication, and installation. PCP technology is being used for intermittent repairs (both full-depth repairs and full panel replacement) and for continuous applications (longer-length/wider-area rehabilitation) with service life expectations—of at least 20 years for repairs and at least 40 years for continuous applications—without significant future corrective treatment….

The tech brief provides details about PCP projects in 29 states: AL, CA, CO, CT, DE, DC, FL, GA, HI, IL, IN, IA, KS, LA, MI, MN, MO, NV, NJ, NY, OR, PA, RI, TX, UT, VT, VA, WV, and WI.  

The 2019 version supersedes the 2015 version.
Author of the January 2019 revised version: Shiraz Tayabji, Ph.D., P.E.

For the Tech Brief, please go to: https://www.fhwa.dot.gov/pavement/concrete/pubs/hif19011.pdf