The analyses of environmental factors for curing concrete pavements inside tunnels

Abstract

Tunnel construction in Korea has significantly increased since 2002. This is due to Korean government's eco-friendly strategy to reduce lengthy and inefficient roadways in mountain areas, and to provide direct access to highway networks in congested urban area. Tunnel construction can be largely divided into two major processes; tunneling or removing of earth, and making of concrete wall and slab. For any concrete road construction, curing concrete is highly encouraged as it helps concrete to reach desired maximum strength and durability. However, it is also a tedious and time-consuming process. This paper provides data that support an idea of eliminating the curing of inner portion of the concrete slab in tunnel when the construction is conducted during certain time of the year and at certain geographical locations. It is a well-known fact that curing, which is a process to slow down evaporation of moisture within concrete, depends on environmental factors such as temperature, relative humidity, and wind speed. This paper provides comparative analyses of these environmental data obtained from both outside and inside of ten tunnels around various geographic locations of Korea. Based on these results, this paper suggests that curing is not required for concrete slab inside relatively long tunnels.