Design and Construction Transition Guidelines for Concrete Pavement (0-5320-P3)

This product introduces most transitions types of concrete pavement that consist of a variety of joint combinations and slab configurations. Transition area design often evolves around the placement and detailing of joints that are placed in concrete pavements to control cracking and to facilitate construction. They divide the pavement into practical construction increments, delineate traffic lanes, and accommodate slab movements. This project conducted a survey of Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) and other State Highway Association (SHA) practices and identified the best practices toward incorporating them into guidelines for design and construction of transition areas that will enable TxDOT engineers and designers to avoid the pitfalls of bad practices. In addition to the guidelines, the project also produced detail design sheets to illustrate the specifics in the form of standard sheets, which will be evaluated by TxDOT for implementation. Guidelines address both design and construction of concrete pavements in transition areas with the joints and related details. The analysis of specific joint configurations associated with transitions was conducted with respect to stiffness of the joint, potential for permanent deformation, and slab restraint to translational movement at the joint. In the design guide, 13 most frequently constructed types of concrete pavement transitions are introduced and some of them have alternative designs as more options in the design guide. The design guide sheets provide the conceptual profile view or plan view drawing of each transition type of concrete pavement. The drawings address slab dimensions, joint types, and layouts of joints. Design guide sheets produce the design factors of each transition type such as joint reinforcing bar size and spacing when engineers choose a value from the list or input information manually with reference to recommended values. To help engineers, the key points of transition area design, important design options/factors, and construction issues are included. The guidelines provide a complete picture of the requirement for the design of a pavement transition for a variety of pavement types and terminal configurations that are suitable for use.