Concrete Pavement Patching Challenges in Virginia

This paper highlights the challenges in developing practical concrete pavement patching specifications for the Virginia Department of Transportation (DOT). Several hypothetical scenarios were analyzed with HIPERPAV to provide a general idea about the sensitivity of the parameters that affect the performance of concrete patches. The study concluded that the use of a maturity meter in the Virginia DOT special provisions will allow a rapid decision to be made regarding early opening to traffic after concrete repairs and will eliminate the need for testing during construction. Specifying a compressive strength of 1,600 psi (11,030 kPa) for opening to traffic will not adversely affect the patch. Contractors can use HIPERPAV to compare various strategies including placement time and traffic opening time for a particular concrete mix. In general, at higher mix temperatures, the peak stress-to-strength ratio is consistently higher over longer times. It is important to control or minimize the base and subbase temperature before concrete is poured. Higher early cracking potential is associated with patch mixes with a lower water–cement ratio. The early cracking potential is higher in longer patches compared with shorter patches in spite of the similar strength gain requirements for opening to traffic. The risk of failure is low for a shorter patch when the traffic opening time is reduced.