PCC Surface Characteristics – Construction

Partners: Mn/DOT, FHWA

People desire smooth, quiet, and safe pavements. To encourage smooth pavements, we need to quantify the effects of other important pavement performance parameters on ride. These parameters include texture, noise, and friction. Since Minnesota’s introduction of the astro-drag we have seen the need to consistently evaluate the pavement finishing technique. Our understanding of the interaction of texture and ride is still very rudimentary. In 2002 the Mn/DOT Concrete Engineering Unit and the Concrete Pavers Association of Minnesota created a test section on TH 212 at Bird Island to study the effects of texture and joints in pavement smoothness. The results showed that profile index was affected by texture and joints. However, data gathered so far are insufficient to define a global correlation between texture values and their effect on ride, and the results obtained for the effects of joints on ride were not conclusive because of unanticipated construction issues.

This research constitutes a Type 1 Pavement Surface Characteristic Project that will be the second in the country after the Iowa Highway 30 Project. It may also constitute a Quiet Pavement Pilot Project (QPPP) or a Quiet Pavement Research (QPR) project based on FHWA definitions. This project will investigate in greater detail the frequency patterns of the surface types and identify through power spectrum density analysis what frequency regimes account for the noise characteristics of each surface. It will quantify the effects of joints on IRI and quantify the noise attenuation benefit implicit in the use of astro-turf drag.