Pavement performance mechanics of interlocking concrete paver crosswalk designs

This paper summarizes a research study that involved a partnership between Centre for Pavement and Transportation Technology located at University of Waterloo and Interlocking Concrete Pavement Institute. This research study involved the construction of eight crosswalks with different base and bedding materials at two test sites and was directed at defining the performance mechanics for designs with various bases and setting beds. The objective was to quantify the structural performance of four different interlocking concrete pavement designs under two loading scenarios. The Test Track typically experienced loaded garbage trucks up to 56 000 kg of maximum load. The Ring Road experienced traffic volume of a typical urban road. This research evaluated eight crosswalks of four different designs in these two locations. Sand set concrete base concrete header was one of the designs. Similarly, the combination of asphalt base, granular base, steel header, aluminum header, and concrete header were other designs of the crosswalks studied. Strain gauges, moisture probes, earth pressure cells, and thermistors were installed in the crosswalks to continuously monitor the structural and environmental impact from various loading conditions. Continued surveys were all performed as part of the research. Maximum recommended lifetime design equivalent single axle loads (ESALs) for bituminous set concrete base concrete header design was 7.5 million ESALs and sand set asphalt base asphalt header was recommended to have 1.5 million design ESALs. This paper presents the performance mechanics of the crosswalks from construction (2007–2009) to May 2010.