EVALUATION OF INTERLOCKING CONCRETE PAVEMENT PERFORMANCE IN AN URBAN NORTHERN CONTEXT

Road pavement surfacing is now an intrinsic part of the development and personalization of municipal public space projects. Through its variety of forms, colors, and textures, interlocking concrete pavements provide an answer to concerns in urban design. Nevertheless, the use of interlocking concrete pavements by cities in the province of Quebec remains low. Little is known about the structural behaviour of this type of pavement in northern conditions since only few studies have focused on this topic. This research project aims at the determination of criteria for the design of interlocking concrete pavement in northern environment. For this purpose, a stateof-the-art and practices in northern countries has been done and parameters linked to performance of this type of pavement have been identified. Furthermore, the experience with interlocking concrete pavement as road surfacing in Quebec has been reviewed. An evaluation of nine sites in Quebec City, six in Montreal City, and three in Longueuil City, yielded to the identification of the main parameters linked to the degradation of interlocking concrete pavements in urban northern context. This assessment has enabled pinpointing of the problems associated with this type of pavement and to identify the causes of failures as well as the reasons behind the success of existing sites, in particular, the key role of the bedding sand. An experimental program was also carried out in laboratory, which consisted in verifying and quantifying the relative importance of these significant parameters using cyclic testing on systems consisting of two types of concrete blocks laid on bedding sands of different thicknesses and mineralogical sources.