Evaluation of Jointed Reinforced Concrete Pavement Rehabilitation on I-64 in the Richmond and Hampton Roads Districts of Virginia

About the report:

Beginning in 2004, the Virginia Department of Transportation (VDOT) undertook a series of pavement rehabilitation projects to address deficiencies in three sections of the I-64 corridor between Richmond and Newport News.  I-64 serves as the primary avenue between the Richmond and Hampton Roads metropolitan areas and carries a combined traffic volume ranging from approximately 20,000 to 90,000 vehicles per day.  For nearly 100 mi, this roadway is a four-lane divided facility that was originally built between the late 1960s and early 1970s as either a jointed reinforced or continuously reinforced concrete pavement.  The existing concrete pavement was rehabilitated using three rehabilitation procedures: two standard approaches and an experimental approach.  The standard rehabilitation procedures included the use of full-depth portland cement concrete (PCC) patches overlaid by a hot-mix asphalt (HMA) overlay and full-depth PCC patches followed by grinding of the pavement surface.  The experimental rehabilitation procedure consisted of the use of full- and partial-depth HMA patches followed by an HMA overlay.  The purpose of this study was to document the initial condition and performance to date of the I-64 project and to summarize similar work performed by state departments of transportation other than VDOT.  

The pavement rehabilitation cost per lane-mile was nearly 20% less for the section of I-64 for which full-depth PCC patches followed by grinding of the pavement surface was used than for the other two sections.  However, the experimental results do not allow for a comparison to determine any differences in the structural capacity or service life between the sections.

The study recommends that VDOT’s Materials Division annually monitor the ride quality of the pavement in the three rehabilitated sections of I-64 so that the end of service life can be defined as the pavement roughness increases because of deterioration.  Further, the Virginia Transportation Research Council should collaborate with other research organizations to encourage and pursue full-scale, or laboratory-scale accelerated pavement testing to determine the optimum repair materials and methods for pre-overlay repair of existing PCC pavements and to develop models to quantify the deterioration of an asphalt overlay placed over an existing concrete pavement because of reflection cracking.

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