Portland cement pervious concrete pavement: field performance investigation on parking lot and roadway pavements

Portland cement pervious concrete (PCPC) has an excellent performance history in the Southeastern United States, but until recently has seen limited use in environments with significant freeze-thaw cycles. Therefore, assessment of actual field performance is important. This project documents field observations, and nondestructive testing results of PCPC sites located in the states of Ohio, Kentucky, Indiana, Colorado, and Pennsylvania. PCPC is most often used as a pavement for parking lots. Field performance depends on the quality of the mixture as well as proper control of construction and curing. In addition to field observations and nondestructive testing, laboratory testing was performed on cores removed from some of the test sites. Generally, the PCPC installations evaluated have performed well in freeze-thaw environments with little maintenance required. The research goals included developing recommendations as to how to build PCPC pavements in freeze-thaw environments, and how to prevent clogging. Observations suggest that providing sufficient drainage under PCPC pavements to keep them from becoming saturated in freezing weather is likely to be effective. Site specific observations of clogging patterns provided insight into sources of clogging, and how these may be avoided.