Portland cement Concrete Pavement

Parts/ Layers

Surface Course

It is the top layer, which consists of concrete slab. It gives the surface properties
such as friction, noise control, smoothness and drainage. It acts as a waterproof
layer to the sub-base and sub-grade layer. For light loading 150mm or 6 inches of
thickness can be applied and 300mm or 12 inches thickness for heavy loads and
high traffic.

Base Course

It is the layer next to the surface course. Its purpose is to give extra load
distribution, prevents soil erosion, provides drainage and frost resistance, allows
stable support to the pavement, and stabilizes the platform for the equipments.
Base course are commonly made of crushed aggregates, stabilized soil or lean
concrete.

Sub-base Course

It is the layer between the existing soil and the base course. It decreases
disturbance of fines from the existing soil into the pavement, gives working
platform for construction and also improves drainage. Sub-base course is not
always needed in construction. Sub-base course are made of lower quality
materials compared to base course like structural fills.
 Equipment

Dump Truck

Dump trucks are used for transporting materials such as aggregates or demolition
wastes. After the concrete is prepared to deliver and are placed at the site, the
dump trucks have 30 minutes limited time by specifications. Retarding admixtures
are sometimes used to prolong the delivery time up to 60 minutes.

Road Grader

Equipment purpose is to create flat surface for pavement to be placed on. Road
grader has three axles, engine and cab is found above the rear axles at the back
end and a third axle at the front which has a long blade in between.

Vibratory roller

Are commonly used for compaction of grained or gravely soil. For granular soils
(1) vibratory rollers or plates are used. While for cohesive soils, (2) pad-foot
vibratory roller is recommended.

(1) (2)

Transit mixer/concrete paver

Transit mixers are used to transport and combine ready mix concrete from the
batch plant to the project site. Typical transit mixers uses 6.9 − 9.2m3 of mixing
drum. When transporting, drums can be loaded to a maximum of 80% of its
volume. Drums have helical blades on the side walls to push mixed concrete to the
bottom when drum is in discharge rotation. Discharge is 3-6 m chute. Transit
mixers have revolution counters to know the total drum revolution and are also
equipped with slump meters and digital water meters.

Broom

After the road is set, the debris is cleaned by the road cleaning brooms before the
road can be used.

Concrete Saw

Form joints or breaks the concrete slab by use of mechanical cutting tools. It
consists of saw blades which can use either diamond or abrasive blades; Diamond
blades generates high heat when cutting and generally required to cooled by using
water to prevent the blade from melting or overheating, it also prevents formation
of dust to the blades. Abrasive blades doesn’t required water for cooling but has
less cutting ability compared to diamond blades, usually this blade is used on
concrete with softer aggregate. This equipment has different sizes; (1)small-for dry
sawing, used for early cuts or small cuts, 6-13kW. (2)medium-for wet saw
applications, 15-28kW. (3)large- wet sawing, used for longitudinal, maneuverability
is not critical due to size,50-55kW. (4) span- wet sawing, they are multi-bladed and
used in high production jobs.

(1) (2) (3) (4)

Asphalt Concrete Pavement

Parts/ Layers

Surface course

It is the final top surface. It is a flexible pavement that protects the base course
from traffic and water, gives tire friction and noise control, and also suitable
reflectance for night-time driving. Asphalt is used for high traffic volumes. It has
smaller and wear-resistant stones compared to the base course and employs more
bitumen-black viscous mixture of hydrocarbons obtained from petroleum
distillation.

Prime coat/ Tack coat

It is bituminous liquid asphalt applied between asphalt pavement that helps

bonding. It provides strength to the pavement layer and 40mm-50mm thickness is
recommended. Improper bonding can result to cracking and potholes.

Base course

This layer is between the binder and the sub-base course. It is subjected to severe
loading and the materials are required to be durable for supporting these loads. It
consist of wearing course and extra binder course.

Sub – base course

It contains crushed rocks or cement bound that acts as a load bearing layer, that
spreads the load throughout the sub-grade.
 Equipment

Asphalt distributor

Are used to for tack coats, they are trucks or trailers that consists of an insulated
tank with a heating system, spray bar and control system.

Asphalt paver

the hot mixed asphalt is carried to the rear by a set of flight feeders, spread out by
a set of augers, then leveled and compacted by a screed. There are two main
systems: the (1)tractor-containing the material feed system, which accepts the
mixture in front of the paver, moves to the rear, then screed leveling. Components
are; push roller and truck hitch, hopper, conveyor, and auger. The (2)Screed- self
leveling unit, that specify the profile of the mixture being placed. The screed takes
the head of mixture, strikes it at correct thickness and mat compaction.
Components; screed plate, screed angle, strike-off pate, screed arms, tow point,
depth crank, screed heater, screed vibrator and screed extensions.

(1) (2)
Steel wheel roller

It is a compaction device that uses steel drums to compact the hot mixture asphalt.
It may contain one, two or three drums. The drums may both be static or vibratory,
and commonly range from 86-215 cm (35-85 inches) in width and 50-150cm (20-
60 inches) diameter. The roller weighs between 0.9 and 18 tonnes.

Pneumatic tire roller

It is self-propelled compaction equipment that uses pneumatic tires to compact hot

mixture asphalt. It has smooth tires on each axle; commonly 4 on one and 5 on the
other. The tires are aligned with the gaps between tires in front. Its compacting
effort is controlled by the tire pressure (400 kPa) 60 psi and 120 psi (800kPa).