Highway 400 precast concrete inlay panel project: Instrumentation plan, installation, and preliminary results

The Ministry of Transportation of Ontario was interested in a rehabilitation strategy that could be used to address deep-seated rutting issues encountered on its 400-series highways. A precast concrete inlay panel (PCIP) rehabilitation design was developed and constructed involving the installation of precast panels into partially-milled asphalt pavement. Sub- surface instrumentation was installed at the PCIP-asphalt interface including earth pressure cells and moisture sensors installed in six instrumentation clusters. This instrumentation has been monitored to gather information regarding the PCIP trial installation. Readings from the moisture sensors indicate that water penetrates beneath the PCIPs in precipitation events, though these moisture levels recede under dry conditions, indicating that the water can exit the sub-slab area. Static load testing using a fully-loaded gravel truck was used to determine the different support reactions caused by different loading configurations. Higher loads were generally found beneath the joints in the two loading situations studied. Le ministere des Transports de l'Ontario s'est penche sur une strategie de refection qui pourrait etre utilisee pour regler les problemes d'ornierage profondement enracines sur ses routes de la serie 400. La conception pour la refection au moyen de panneaux d'incrustation en beton prefabrique (PIBP) a ete developpee et realisee par l'installation de panneaux prefabriques dans un revetement d'asphalte partiellement broye. Une instrumentation enfouie a ete installee a l'interface PIBP- asphalte y compris des cellules manometriques et des sondes d'humidite installees en six regroupements d'instrumentation. Cette instrumentation a fait l'objet d'un controle afin de rassembler des informations quant a l'installation des PIBP d'essai. Les lectures des sondes d'humidite indiquent que l'eau penetre au-dessous des PIBP lors d'evenements de precipitation, quoique ces niveaux d'humidite s'estompent dans des conditions seches, indiquant que l'eau s'evacue de la zone sous les dalles. On a eu recours a un essai de charge statique avec un camion de gravier charge a capacite afin de determiner, au niveau de la portance, les diverses reactions causees par differentes configurations de chargement. Les charges plus elevees se trouvaient generalement au- dessous des joints dans les deux situations de chargement etudiees. [Traduit par la Redaction] Mots-cles : beton prefabrique, refection des chaussees, panneau de beton prefabrique incruste, reparation de routes a forte circulation.
Introduction Precast concrete panels (PCPs) have been used as a paving material since as early as 1931 in the Soviet Union (Rollings and Chou 1981); however, their use has only [...]