Advantages of Precast Concrete in Highway Infrastructure Construction

Abstract

Prefabrication of any structure component off-site during highway construction (or reconstruction) offers major time and user cost savings in comparison with the traditional cast-in-place methods of construction. Precast prestressed road pavements’ technology offers dramatic increase in durability, while it also substantially decreases the construction time and the user costs. Precasting bridge parts and elements offsite is also very beneficial as bridges are generally among the most expensive objects constructed and also serve as a natural bottleneck for the traffic flows and so speeding up the construction process is beneficial again. It also brings substantial safety advantages, lowers disruption to traffic and increases overall convenience for the road users. But this technologically, economically and environmentally advantageous approach also has its opponents – prevailingly from the contractors’ side due to the inability to create every project unique and so with higher possible mark-up. The objective of this paper is to analyze and appraise the advantages and benefits of the innovative prefabrication approach in contrast to traditional cast-in-place construction method, and to come up with a set of conclusions and recommendations for the general practice.