Comparison of precast and cast-in-place concrete pavements responses under heavy vehicle simulator loads

Precast concrete slabs offer an important advantage as a pavement rehabilitation option because they can be opened to traffic immediately upon installation, making them attractive for use on heavily traveled highways and airfields where work windows for repairs or reconstruction are very short. There is a lack of long-term performance information because precast pavements are relatively recent technology. This paper compares results of accelerated pavement tests conducted on precast and cast-in-place pavements. An experiment with a Heavy Vehicle Simulator (HVS) conducted in 2006 on a precast pavement system called the SuperSlab (R) is compared to previous results obtained in California with conventional jointed cast-in-place concrete pavements. The results indicate that a precast pavement system has similar ranges of service life as jointed concrete pavements. A rough approximation of failure at 200 million ESALs seems valid for both types of pavements, if a slab thickness of 200 to 225 mm is considered.