Long-Term Performance of Recycled Portland Cement Concrete Pavement

Over the past years there has been an increasing interest in recycling construction materials, particularly hot-mix asphalt (HMA) and portland cement concrete pavements (PCCP). To this end the Kansas Department of Transportation (KDOT) participated in Demonstration Project 47, Recycling Portland Cement Concrete Pavement, by recycling a moderately D-cracked concrete pavement and monitoring the performance over a 10-year period. The recycled concrete pavement (RCP) aggregate was evaluated in four test sections consisting of two control sections, one test section of portland cement-treated base (CTB) with RCP aggregate, and one test section using RCP aggregate in the PCCP and CTB. An HMA shoulder using RCP as coarse aggregate was also constructed. The test sections were monitored over a 10-year period for performance including faulting, roughness, load transfer, and friction measurements. Faulting, roughness, performance level, and joint distress measurements from KDOT's 1995 pavement condition survey were used to compare the performance of the recycled sections with PCCP of similar age and traffic in the same area of the state. All test sections performed well, with the CTB and PCCP sections with RCP aggregates showing slightly more distress.