New and Innovative Concrete Pavements with Structural Dome Formwork System

The concrete pavement industry is actively seeking new and modern solutions to the construction of more economical, more sustainable, and more durable roads. One innovative product being evaluated for use in pavement applications consists of interlocking modular, dome-shaped plastic units that serve as a permanent formwork. The result is a concrete slab with a system of interconnected vaultlike voids below the surface. The dome shape is capable of providing carrying capacities equivalent to those of conventional slabs but requires less concrete to do so and also provides additional drainage and ventilation benefits. To evaluate the feasibility of using this structural dome formwork system in road and highway applications, a collaborative research effort was undertaken. As part of this study, a full-scale, instrumented trial section was built for testing and evaluation in an accelerated loading scenario. Details about the design and construction of the experimental pavement sections are presented. A preliminary evaluation of pavement performance during the first year of service is provided as well as discussion about this product's feasibility as pavement technology. The results obtained to date suggest that this technology has great potential in concrete pavement applications. The trial pavement sections are performing well after more than 1 year of service and are carrying heavily loaded aggregate trucks in the harsh Canadian climate. More than 1.34 million cumulative equivalent single-axle loads have been applied to the pavement to date without any significant pavement degradation. The findings obtained also indicate that the dome-shaped technology can provide significant material and cost savings as compared with conventional jointed plain concrete pavements.