Development of Tube Feeding Equipment for Construction of Continuously Reinforced Concrete Pavement

In South Korea, the performance of continuously reinforced concrete pavement (CRCP) has been better than that of jointed concrete pavement (JCP). However, most of the Portland cement concrete (PCC) pavements in South Korea have been JCP, primarily due to the difficulty in providing extra space along the edge of the pavement needed for concrete delivery in CRCP construction. About 80% of Korea is covered by mountains, and it is quite expensive to acquire and prepare land to provide space for concrete delivery. To build CRCP at a reasonable cost in South Korea, a CRCP construction method is needed that does not require extra space for concrete delivery. Several different methods have been tried that allowed the delivery of concrete to the front of a paver, including a pre-assembly method. Although the pre-assembly method did not require extra space for concrete delivery, it did require a high level of labor and its productivity was quite low. A more efficient method was needed. In a tube-feeding method (TFM), concrete can be supplied from the front of a paver with better productivity. Efforts were made to improve the capability of TFM in placing longitudinal steel at correct elevations. The ability and productivity of the newly developed TFM in placing reinforcing steel in correct elevations were quite satisfactory, and CRCP was constructed with the new TFM. Early age performance of CRCP built with TFM in terms of characteristics of transverse cracks has been satisfactory.