National Concrete Pavement Technology Center

Project description

Sustainable development is promoted by using recycled material such as recycled concrete aggregates (RCA) in construction. Several sections of concrete pavement made with RCA now exist in the Minnesota Department of Transportation (MnDOT) network. However, the long-term performance of such sections has not been formally evaluated against the performance of similar conventional concrete pavements. The variables of interest include such things as mean times between repairs or maintenance, rate of friction degradation, ride quality loss, amount of freeze-thaw degradation, aggregate alkali reaction, and other distresses. It is necessary to perform such an evaluation to get an accurate idea of the cost effectiveness of using RCA. While a reduction in initial cost may be realized by using RCA, there is the possibility that long-term costs, that is lifecycle costs, may be higher for the RCA pavements. If the lifecycle costs of RCA pavements are found to be lower than those for conventional pavements, this could lead to an increased use of RCA in pavement construction.