CRCP Design for Guided Bus Route in the UK

Abstract

A Continuously Reinforced Concrete Pavement (CRCP) design was prepared for a non-uniform pavement section of a dedicated guided bus route in the United Kingdom. The non-uniform section required full-depth thickness along the channelized wheel path and reduced thickness in the middle section which serves as drainage path. Using the current CRCP standard design method for UK presented a challenge because it was assumed that the method intrinsically accounts for lateral wander and therefore not applicable for channelized traffic. It was decided that a project specific design approach was needed for this project. Two structural models were used to understand the impact of reduced thickness in the middle section on the wheel path portion of the pavement. The first structural model is a generic finite element program that could simulate the response of any type of geometry. The second structural model is the pavement program EVERFE which was used to calibrate the generic finite element program for a uniform pavement thickness. Once the generic program was calibrated, the generic program with non-uniform thickness was used to understand the reduced pavement thickness in the middle portion of the section and its influence on the traffic path portion. This paper summarizes the structural analysis and the final design prepared for the project. The non-uniform section also includes an integrated curb as part of the guided bus route, which has tight horizontal spacing requirements to meet the operation demands of the guided bus system. The approach for developing the longitudinal and transverse reinforcement was similar to current state of art CRCP design methods.