CONCRETE PAVEMENT DESIGN AND CONSTRUCTION PRACTICES BY THE TEXAS DOT

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The Texas Department of Transportation (Texas DOT) is a decentralized organization consisting of twenty-four geographical Districts (Figure 1). Each District makes its own decision as to what pavement type will be designed and constructed. However, the Department's use of concrete pavement in highway projects has increased significantly over the past decade, especially in urban areas and in high truck traffic corridors. A paper presented at the Fourth International Conference on Concrete Pavement Design and Rehabilitationdescribed and analyzed the use of the 1986 AASHTO Guide for Design of Pavement Structures procedure in determining concrete pavement thicknesses for Texas DOT highway projects (Ref. 1). This paper will discuss the other concrete pavement design and construction practices by the Texas DOT. The paper will present and describe the background behind the various Texas DOT concrete pavement design standard plan sheets included in highway construction plans. Currently, the Texas DOT has standards for continuously reinforced concrete pavement (CRCP) , plain dowelled jointed concrete pavement (CPCD), skewed plain jointed concrete pavement (CPSJ), and jointed reinforced concrete pavement (JRCP). In conjunction with these standards, the Texas DOT terminal anchorage standards, wide flange terminal joint standards, and joint sealing standards will be presented and discussed. The background behind the CRCP standard will be of particular interest, since the current longitudinal steel requirements were developed using a design procedure generated by a research project with the University of Texas. Examples of interstate highway projects built recently with the various standards will also be briefly presented. After the standards are presented, a summary of concrete pavement usage in Texas since 1983 will be presented. Fmally, the paper will briefly describe ongoing efforts and findings in the research area that will affect concrete pavement design and construction procedures in the future. The overall objective of this paper is to generally summarize the experience the Texas DOT has had with concrete pavement design and construction since the beginning of the U.S. Interstate program. As a result, the paper will indicate the current state of the practice concerning concrete pavement design and construction by this transportation agency.