Evaluating Performance of Concrete Overlays for Pavement Rehabilitation

The Missouri Department of Transportation (MoDOT) has a long history of concrete overlay use dating back to at least the 1930s, and over the last 20 years has constructed over 40 concrete overlay projects in a range of applications. The goal of this study was to review and evaluate the performance of bonded and unbonded overlays constructed in Missouri as a first step in documenting their performance and working to improve MoDOT’s overall concrete overlay selection, design, and construction procedures. 

A database of important design, construction, and performance data for 41 selected concrete overlay projects built by the Missouri DOT from 1999 to 2019 was compiled. Three types of concrete overlays were included in this project:

1. Unbonded overlays (UBOLs): concrete overlay with thicknesses of 8 in or greater and conventional joint spacing placed on and separated from an existing concrete or asphalt pavement. A total of 26 UBOL projects were included.

2. Big block overlays (BBOLs): an unbonded concrete overlay with typical 5-in thickness and short panel size (typically 6ft by 6ft) and placed on an existing concrete or asphalt pavement. A total of 9 BBOL projects were included.

3. Bonded overlays (BOLs); a thin concrete overlay of typical 4-in thickness and 4ft by 4ft panel size bonded to the underlying asphalt or concrete pavement. A total of 6 BOL projects were included.

Time-series smoothness data were available for all projects since the time of their construction while key distress data (cracking, spalling, faulting, patching) were available from 2018. These data were examined for all overlay types and general performance trends and observations were made to identify factors leading to improved performance. Based on the findings, general recommendations to improve the performance of concrete overlays in Missouri were developed.

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Report number: cmr 20-012
Published: November 2020
Project number: TR202003
Authors: Max Grogg, Arturo Espinoza-Luque, Kurt Smith, Monty Wade, and Julie Vandenbossche

Performing organization: Applied Pavement Technology, Inc.

Transportation Infrastructure Asset Monitoring through the Industrial Internet-of-Things

 

The Internet-of-Things (IoT) is a technology that has been growing since its inception in 2009 and as wireless technology becomes more ubiquitous, so are its applications. Even though this technology started with consumer applications, it has entered many industrial applications in factories, utilities, and smart cities. Recently these applications are being referred as the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT). The research goal of this study is to explore the current status and viability of the IIoT technology for the purpose of asset management of transportation infrastructure or the actual built infrastructure distributed along the highway system in the state of Missouri. This research project was framed by MoDOT in two phases. Phase 1 focus was on preliminary research to assess the readiness of IIoT for initial implementation on the transportation highway system (such as bridges, pavements, retaining walls, signs, etc.). Phase 2 will implement a pilot study on a limited number of structures to physically evaluate the technology.  This report is the result of Phase 1, which summarizes the findings during this period.

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Report number: cmr 20-011
Published: October 2020
Project number: TR202006
Authors: Ronaldo Luna, JC Murray, and Jim Hummert 

Performing organization: AECOM Technical Services, Inc.

Support for Balanced Asphalt Mixture Design Specification Development in Missouri

The primary objective of the study conducted herein was to assist MoDOT in the development of a balanced mix design asphalt specification in Missouri. At the onset of the study, a detailed climatic study was conducted. Next, asphalt performance testing was carried out across a range of temperatures to establish property-temperature relationships. Eleven mixtures were tested using the Disk-Shaped Compact Tension Test (DCT) across a range of low temperatures, while the Hamburg Wheel Tracking Test (HWTT) was conducted across a range of high temperatures. Mixture testing was carried out on both plant-produced mixtures and field cores. Two additional cracking tests were investigated in this portion of the study: the Illinois Flexibility Index Test, or I-FIT, and the IDEAL cracking test. Field performance data from MoDOT’s pavement management database was extracted to assist with the development of specification thresholds for the cracking and rutting tests investigated. For BMD specification development, a novel approach was taken herein whereby recommended specification thresholds were introduced for all three cracking tests currently under investigation in Missouri and across the Midwest (DC(T), I-FIT and IDEAL). 

While the current study focused on mainline, high-type mixes, preliminary recommendations for shoulder mixes and other low traffic paving applications are provided, which may be of interest in larger urban areas and for municipal projects where closer control of asphalt performance via testing and materials investment is of concern. Stone-Matrix Asphalt mixes were not considered in this study. The recommended tests and thresholds provided herein should be viewed as preliminary and can be adjusted based on practical considerations and stakeholder discussions in a consensus process. Further validation of the proposed BMD tests and limits via long term field monitoring or testing on a controlled test road or test track facility is highly recommended. Additional work to apply the recommended BMD to quality control specifications and performance-related quality assurance specifications in a practical manner is also recommended.

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Report number: cmr 20-010
Published: September 2020
Project number: TR201811
Authors: William G. Buttlar, Loreto Urra-Contreras, Behnam Jahangiri, Punyaslok Rath, and Hamed Majidifard

Performing organization: University of Missouri-Columbia

Inlaid Pavement Marker Evaluation

The objectives of this study were to assess inlaid pavement marker (IPM) performance and estimate their safety effectiveness. IPM performance was evaluated through a count of marker presence and a feedback survey from participants who viewed dry and wet night videos of IPM sections in the St Louis area. The safety effectiveness of IPMs was evaluated using a rigorous state-of-the-art empirical Bayes (EB) before-after crash analysis. The marker presence assessment, unfortunately, didn’t provide any conclusive trends in IPM performance. Newer IPM sections had higher percentages of missing markers than older sections, and there were too many unknown variables to determine the source of the unexpected differences. The unanimous conclusion of the nighttime video visibility survey was that drivers and passengers traveling on a wet night feel that IPMs are very important to the visibility of the roadway’s lane lines. For the EB analysis, installation and reference site data were used to examine the effects for specific crash types, including total, fatal and injury, wet pavement, nighttime, nighttime wet pavement, lane departure, wet pavement lane departure, nighttime lane departure, and fatal and injury lane departure. Based on the aggregate results, IPMs, when installed with pavement resurfacing, significantly reduce all crash types examined.

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Report number: cmr 20-009
Published: July 2020
Project number: TR201911
Authors: Carmine Dwyer and Scott Himes

Performing organization: Applied Research Associates, Inc., and Vanasse Hangen Brustlin, Inc.

Highway Safety Manual Training

Safety has become an area of increasing focus in all aspects of transportation planning, design, construction, and operations. Transportation legislation, such as the SAFETEA-LU Act (2005) and the FAST Act (2015), have promoted data driven safety analysis in various programs. The publication of the Highway Safety Manual (2010) and the Supplement (2014) have standardized data driven safety methodology and developed related tools such as spreadsheets and the ISATe (Enhanced Interchange Safety Analysis Toolbox). 

The demand for knowledge and experience in data driven safety analysis has been increasing. This report documents a project to produce data driven safety training for MoDOT trainers. The project developed two training deliverables.

The first is a full-day training for safety staff and engineers. This training covers the fundamentals of data driven safety, rural multilane divided highways, urban/suburban 4-leg signalized intersections, urban 4-lane freeway segments, and four sample applications: design exception, traffic impact study, design build, and safety programming. The second was a 15-minute video that

presents an overview of data-driven safety and is suitable for staff at various levels, even those without formal safety training. A goal of this project is to produce flexible training materials that can meet the training needs of various MoDOT districts and divisions.

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Report number: cmr 20-008
Published: June 2020
Project number: TR201908
Authors: Carlos Sun, Praveen Edara, Yaw Adu-Gyamfi, Mohammadmehdi Zoghifard, and Ziyi Huang

Performing organization: University of Missouri-Columbia

Local Calibration of the Pavement ME for Missouri

The Missouri Department of Transportation (MoDOT) was one of the early adopters of the Mechanistic-Empirical Pavement Design Guide procedure and completed the local calibration using the research grade software in 2009. The emphasis then was on establishing testing and field data collection programs, and calibrating for new designs, as adequate performance data was not available for rehabilitation sections. Since its adoption by the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO) and its support for the AASHTOWare Pavement Design ME, several enhancements have been made. MoDOT has made changes to the materials program by increasing use of recycled materials and adding advanced testing capabilities to develop Level 1 materials inputs to the Pavement ME Design procedure. These factors bring to fore the need for recalibration of Pavement ME Design distress and IRI prediction models for Missouri. This study aimed to recalibrate distress models for new and rehabilitated flexible and rigid pavements using Version 2.5.5 of the AASHTOWare Pavement ME program.

This study included calibration sections in Missouri from MoDOT’s pavement management system (PMS) and from the Long-Term Pavement Performance (LTPP) database. Sections covered a range of subgrades, layer material types, thicknesses, climate, traffic, designs, and rehabilitation practices typical for MoDOT. For flexible pavements, New AC, AC over AC, and ACover JPCP designs, and for rigid pavements, New JPCP and Unbonded overlays were considered. Distress models calibrated include Alligator Cracking, Alligator Reflection Cracking, AC Thermal Cracking, Transverse Reflection Cracking, AC Rutting, Total Rutting and Smoothness/International Roughness Index (IRI) for flexible pavements and Transverse Cracking, Transverse Joint Fault, and IRI for rigid pavements. Level 1 laboratory and field data were used for most design inputs. The predictions showed a deviation from global models and therefore we calibrated to reduce error and eliminate bias in all flexible pavement models considered. Sensitivity analyses were used to study the impact of critical parameters. The rigid pavement sections did not exhibit adequate distress development to warrant a recalibration. Until further distress data is collected, the global models are recommended for rigid pavement designs. The study recommends the use of Level 1 field data for future design.

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Report number: cmr 20-007
Published: June 2020
Project number: TR201609
Authors: Leslie Titus-Glover; Chetana Rao, Ph.D.; Suriyanarayanan Sadasivam, Ph.D.
Performing organization: Rao Research and Consulting, LLC

Performance-Based Specifications of FiberReinforced Concrete with Adapted Rheology to Enhance Performance and Reduce SteelReinforcement in Structural Members

The main objective of this research is to propose novel materials for the construction and retrofitting of bridges, including Economical Crack-Free High-Performance Concrete (Eco-Bridge-Crete, or EBC) and Fiber-Reinforced Super-Workable Concrete (FR-SWC). The project seeks to optimize the coupled effect of fiber characteristics, expansive agent (EA), saturated lightweight sand (LWS), and external moist curing on mechanical properties, shrinkage, and corrosion resistance of such classes of high-performance concrete. The project also aims to replace steel reinforcement in flexural members with steel fibers partially. In Task I, Eco-Bridge-Crete mixture design was optimized to reduce drying and restrained expansion and secure high mechanical properties. Eco-Bridge-Crete mixtures were optimized using various shrinkage mitigating strategies, including the use of different contents of CaO-based EA, LWS, and steel fibers as well as different moist curing conditions. The study revealed some synergistic effects among the EA, LWS, and fiber contents and external curing that led to lower shrinkage and restrained expansion and greater strength. The combined use of EA, along with LWS, was shown to reduce concrete conductivity and improve corrosion resistance. Overall, the use of synthetic fibers, EA along with LWS, increased moist curing duration, and concrete cover depth was identified as suitable strategies for improving the corrosion resistance of Eco-Bridge-Crete mixtures. In Task II, the structural performance of reinforced concrete beams cast with FR-SWC mixtures made with different fiber types and reinforcing steel densities was evaluated. The testing involved casting of beam elements with different steel reinforcement densities (0.4 to 0.8 in.2 of steel area in the tension zone). 

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Report number: cmr 20-006
Published: June 2020
Project number: TR201806
Authors: Kamal H. Khayat, PhD, P.Eng.
Performing organization: Missouri University of Science & Technology

Consultant Support for IC-PMTPS Projects

Due to the success of the MoDOT 2017 Intelligent Compaction (IC) and Infrared Scanning (IR) projects that demonstrated Quality Control (QC) improvements in 13 field projects, MoDOT established a plan that included further IC and Paver-mounted Thermal Profile Systems (PMTPS) projects in 2018-2019 with a goal of full implementation in 2021. To ensure continued success of the MoDOT IC-PMTPS projects in 2018 and beyond, MoDOT procured Consulting Support for the selected IC-PMTPS projects in 2018-2019 (i.e., Phase II). This research details the results from the 2019 IC-PMTPS Projects and an average of the overall results from 2017-2019. There was a significant improvement in IC and PMTPS data management and analysis efforts by contractors from 2017 to 2019. The thermal segregation continually improved from 2017 to 2019, according to AASHTO PP80 definitions of thermal segregation. There was also significant improvement in IC coverage from 2018 to 2019. Based on the 2017-2019 projects and lessons learned, recommendations for future implementations are included in the study. 

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Report number: cmr 20-005
Published: May 2020
Project number: TR201902
Authors: Dr. George Chang, Amanda Gilliland, and Victor (Lee) Gallivan
Performing organization: Transtec Group, Inc.

Field Implementation of Compacted Concrete Pavement

The main objective of this research is to investigate the performance of Compacted Concrete Pavement (CCP) with special design features of surface texture that can reduce construction cost and secure safe and durable surface texture. This research was part of a larger project undertaken by the City of Mexico, Missouri in collaboration with Missouri Department of Transportation (MoDOT).The CCP mixture was evaluated for key fresh properties (unit weight, air content, and Vebe consistency), mechanical properties(compressive strength, flexural strength, and modulus of elasticity), drying shrinkage, and durability (air-void system, freeze thaw resistance, scaling resistance, bulk and surface resistivity). The results of this project aimed to add value to the current state ofpractice related to the use of CCP, synthesize current technical knowledge, study the potential problems associated with the use o fCCP in pavement construction in Missouri, and propose guidelines for best practice related to CCP construction. Test results indicate the reliability of mechanical properties for the investigated CCP material. The compressive and flexural strengths and elastic modulus of the investigated concrete were approximately 4970 psi, 410 psi, and 4120 ksi for cast-in-field samples and 4470 psi, 450 psi, 3550 ksi for core samples, respectively. The drying shrinkage was limited to 60 με after 70 d of testing, indicating low drying shrinkage. The durability tests showed that the CCP mixture can be classified as a mixture with moderate chloride ion permeability and acceptable resistance to de-icing salt scaling. However, the non-air entrained CCP showed poor resistance to freezing and thawing.

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Report number: cmr 20-004
Published: May 2020
Project number: TR201919
Authors: Kamal H. Khayat and Nima Farzadnia
Performing organization: Missouri University of Science & Technology

Performance of Wicking Geotextile on Mitigating Water Pumping Issue on I-44 Highway

Water within pavement layers is the major cause of pavement distresses. An increase in pore water pressure caused by traffic loads causes fine particles of subgrade and subbase to migrate to base course layer. This migration results in the formation of void spaces and reduction in support of the pavement. On the other hand, migrated fines may clog the granular base course and reduce its drainage. All of these negative effects would reduce the durability of the pavement and damage it.
In this study, a full-scale test section located along I-44 highway was constructed and monitored to investigate the effect of a new type of wicking geotextile to enhance pavement drainage and to mitigate water pumping. 
Analyzing one year of data acquired from the sensors shows that the wicking geotextile has successfully reduced the volumetric water content of the base course material up to 5%-10% and enhanced the pavement drainage capacity. This conclusion has been verified by a set of small scale box tests in the laboratory as well. Observations showed that the efficiency of wicking geotextile is considerably better than conventional drainage systems including French drains when the pavement is under unsaturated condition.

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Report number: cmr 20-003
Published: March 2020
Project number: TR201905
Authors: Xiong Zhang and Javad Galinmoghadam
Performing organization: Missouri University of Science & Technology

Predictive Deep Learning for Flood Evacuation Planning and Routing

This research was completed in tandem as a project funded through MoDOT and the MidAmerica Transportation Center. It used deep learning methods, along with geospatial data from the USGS National Map and other public geospatial data sources, to develop forecasting tools capable of assessing water level rate of change in high risk flood areas. These tools build on existing models developed by the USGS, FEMA, and others and were used to determine evacuation routing and detours to mitigate the potential for loss of life during flash floods. The project scope included analysis of publicly available flood data along the Meramec River basin in Fenton as part of a pilot project in Missouri. This data was then used to determine the rate of rise in order to model evacuation or detour planning modules that can be implemented to assure the safety of the community and highway personnel, as well as the safe and secure transport of goods along public roadways. These modules were linked to existing real-time rainfall gauges and weather forecasts for improved accuracy and usability. The transportation safety or disaster planner can use these results to produce planning documents based on geospatial data and information to develop region-specific tools and methods.

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Report number: cmr 20-002
Published: March 2020
Project number: TR201912
Authors: Dr. Steven Corns and Dr. Suzanna Long
Performing organization: Missouri University of Science and Technology

Immersive Work Zone Inspection Training Using Virtual Reality

Can virtual reality tools be used to train engineers that inspect work zones? In this report, we share the findings of a research project that developed an interactive and immersive training platform using virtual reality to train state department of transportation (DOT) staff that inspect work zones for compliance. Virtual reality offers an immersive platform that closely replicates the actual experience of an inspector driving through a work zone, but in a safer, cheaper, and quicker way than field visits. The current training practice involves reviewing temporary traffic control procedures and reports, and pictures from previous inspections. The developed platform consists of a learning module and an immersive module. The learning module is founded on the historical knowledge gained by DOT staff from inspections dating back at least five years. The immersive module places the trainee in a vehicle moving through a work zone, thus providing a realistic experience to the engineer prior to inspecting a real work zone.  The synthesized knowledge was converted into a concise, easy-to-consume format for training.

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Report number: cmr 20-001
Published: February 2020
Project number: TR201901
Authors: Praveen Edara (P.I.), Carlos Sun (co-P.I.), Khaled Aati, and Daeyeol Chang
Performing organization: University of Missouri-Columbia