The National Concrete Pavement Technology Center (CPTech Center) published the new guide, “Best Practice Guidelines for Real-Time Smoothness Technology”. Increasing attention is being paid to pavement smoothness by pavement owner agencies. This is partly because smoothness is being used as a tool to assess pavement condition and partly to improve driver satisfaction by reducing discomfort. This means that contractors are being asked to deliver ever smoother pavements from the start.
One challenge to the concrete pavement construction community has been understanding how everyday work impacts smoothness and what actions can be taken to reduce roughness numbers. Real-time smoothness (RTS) technology is proving to be an invaluable tool in providing contractors with the information they need to address this issue. Output from RTS systems is available immediately, allowing site crews to monitor performance and make adjustments “on the fly”. This enables crews to learn how changes in materials or practices impact the smoothness of the pavement as it leaves the paving machine. While output from RTS systems does not directly correlate with the final IRI, they do trend in the same direction.
To assist with implementing RTS in the field, the National Concrete Pavement Technology Center (CP Tech Center) recently completed a Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) field trial project demonstrating RTS technology. What has been learned through the project has enabled the team to develop guidance on specifications and best practices for optimizing concrete pavement smoothness. The 42-page RTS guide is now available from the CP Tech Center’s curated RTS resource page that complements other CP Tech Center resource pages on the key topics of:
concrete overlays
concrete recycling
geotextiles
pavement preservation
performance-engineered mixtures
The RTS guide titled “Implementation of Best Practices for Concrete Pavements—Guidelines for Specifying and Achieving Smooth Concrete Pavements” is now available, as well as the “Realtime Smoothness Pocket Reference“.
For the “Realtime Smoothness Pocket Reference“ and “Real-Time Smoothness Quick Reference Index“, please click on the images, or go to the CP Tech Center’s curated RTS resource page: https://cptechcenter.org/real-time-smoothness/
For the CPTech News on the RTS Guideline, please go to: https://mailchi.mp/7b2c7102f88d/december-2019-resources-newsletter?e=8aaa098736
For the PDF of the RTS Guide titled “Implementation of Best Practices for Concrete Pavements—Guidelines for Specifying and Achieving Smooth Concrete Pavements”, please click on image at top, or download PDF: https://intrans.iastate.edu/app/uploads/2019/12/smooth_concrete_pvmt_guidelines_w_cvr.pdf
______________________________________
ABSTRACT:
RTS technology is arguably one of the most impactful technologies for concrete pavement construction quality control resulting from the Second Strategic Highway Research Program (SHRP2). Contractors participating in equipment loans through the SHRP2 Solutions Implementation Assistance Program have quickly realized the benefits of RTS for improving smoothness for as-constructed concrete pavement in order to achieve smoothness specification requirements while maximizing incentives and minimizing disincentives and corrective actions.
Over the course of implementing this technology through equipment loans and workshops, it has become apparent that additional guidance for specifying and achieving concrete pavement smoothness is needed. Many agencies struggle to understand what a reasonable specification looks like with respect to smoothness limits and incentive/disincentive levels. Frequently, agency staff do not fully understand the impacts of design factors (curvature, grade and super-elevation changes, leave-outs, etc.) and prescriptive requirements for materials, mixtures, and construction equipment, on the contractor’s abilityto achieve pavement smoothness requirements. Likewise, many contractors do not fully understand the impacts various construction factors, such as the concrete mixture, paving equipment, and paving crew, have on pavement smoothness. Staff often do not understand the importance of continually checking pavement smoothness to adjust operations to ensure the requirements for the final product are achieved.
The purpose of this project was to continue implementing RTS technology through field trials, while also using what has been learned to-date to generate guide specifications and develop best practices for concrete pavement smoothness. In short, the objective of this document is to provide guidelines on how to specify and build smooth concrete pavements.
For the “SHRP2 Solutions Implementation Assistance Program”, please go to: https://www.fhwa.dot.gov/goshrp2/ImplementationAssistance