Project Spotlight

Caltrans uses precast concrete panel replacement to fix aging highways

Californias freeway system is more than 50 years old, yet much of the original pavement still in place had a 20-year expected life span. Thanks to the dry California climate, much of it is still holding up, but the aging infrastructure means that Caltrans maintenance crews are constantly called on to fix holes and cracks where the old pavement has finally reached the end of its life. In the past, that meant closing down broad stretches of highway for at least six hours while crews placed concrete and waited for it to set. This created frustrating traffic jams on the already overcrowded highway system and put workers in harms way as they worked alongside cranky motorists. Now, a new precast concrete solution is cutting the time it takes to repair these roads in half, with a simpler, stronger, more cost-effective solution. Caltrans has begun repairing failed concrete slabs using full-depth precast concrete pavement slabs that are prefabricated and stored for ready use. The slabs are cast to a standard 12ft 12ft 2in. 8.5in. (3.66m 3.71m 220mm), and they can all be trimmed longitudinally by 6in. (150mm) on each side (a total of 1 ft [0.3 m]) if necessary. Each panel includes no.6 (19M) bottom mat reinforcing bars and no.4 (13M) top mat reinforcing bars to prevent shattering and breakage once the panel replacements are in place, enabling the panels to withstand much higher vehicle weights and increased traffic levels, says Debbie Wong, Caltrans design manager in the office of maintenance design. Each slab also features dowel bar slots, corner leveling screws that can be adjusted to fit the depth of any hole, and 9 grout holes to allow the panel replacement to be grouted underneath. The new solution delivers many benefits over cast-in-place concrete, says Kirsten Stahl, Caltrans senior transportation engineer in the office of engineering services. This solution takes easily half the time start to finish, she says. She estimates that maintenance crews can shut down traffic, cut and place the precast concrete panel, grout it, let it set, and reopen the road to traffic in just three hours. Because the panels can be cut to fit, leveled using the corner screws, and grouted to meet the necessary size

The Caltrans crew injects rapid-setting grout under a precast concrete pavement panel. Courtesy of Baltazar Construction Inc.

32

W int e r 2 0 1 3 | PCI Journal

and depth requirements, it eliminates the need for surveys, says Wong. That saves a lot of time in both the design and construction phases, she says. Once the panels are laid in place, crews are able to level them in the field, which means they dont require any additional grinding, says Ed Toledo, Caltrans area superintendent. Thats important because grinding lessens the durability of the panel replacement, potentially taking years off its life span. Most important for Toledo, the precast concrete panels can be laid in any weather without repercussions to the time it takes for them to set or the durability of the finished product. He experienced this firsthand this past November, when Toledo and his crew spent one long rainy weekend laying 36 separate panel replacements on Highway210. It was very wet out there, but we were able to put all the panels in place without any trouble. Once those precast concrete slabs are in place, they are a permanent solution, Toledo says. Because the precast is so durable, we know we wont have to come back and replace them again in six months or a year. Toledos crew used 200 precast concrete panels to repair roads in 2012, and he expects to use more of them in 2013. Caltrans is working with local precasters to create the slabs, and it plans to keep at least 10 of them in storage for emergency repairs. He encourages other road crews to consider the precast concrete panels for their own repair projects. Precast works, he says. Its got a better life cycle than any pour-in-place solution out there. Sarah Fister Gale

Hoisting an insulated roof panel into place in Washington, D.C., September 2011. Courtesy of Jonathan Gann, New Jersey Institute of Technology.

>>

For information on Caltrans use of precast concrete pavement panels in the rehabilitation of Interstate680, see Engineering a Better Road: Use of Two-way Precast, Prestressed Concrete Pavement for Rapid Rehabilitation on pages 129141.

eNJoy House showcases sustainable precast concrete

In 2011, a team of architecture and engineering students from the New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT) and Rutgers University set out to prove that an allprecast concrete home could challenge the way the nation thinks about sustainable construction materials.

Guided by associate professor Richard Garber, the students entered the U.S. Department of Energys biannual Solar Decathlon, which challenges collegiate teams to design, build, and operate single-family, solar-powered houses that are cost-effective, energy-efficient, and attractive. Team New Jerseys submission was the eNJoy House, an allprecast concrete solution, and the only competition entry not traditionally framed with wood or metal studs. eNJoy House challenged traditional concepts and techniques for building high-performance, energyefficient homes, Garber says. It was an opportunity to rethink traditional materials for building houses. The submission had to be solar powered but also would be judged on 10 objective and subjective categories, including engineering, affordability, comfort, hot water, market appeal, and energy balance. The house had to be no more than 1000ft2 (93m2), with a budget of $250,000 or less. What made eNJoy House special was the allprecast solution, Garber says. Typically, precast is found in foundation walls, but we wanted to push the idea of using precast for everythingwalls, floors, roofand see what we could come up with. The resulting design features a central core containing the integrated mechanical, electrical, and plumbing systems, and an inverted hip roof that cantilevers over the clerestory windows of the north facade approximately 8ft (2.4m), providing a south-facing surface for the mounting of a photovoltaic system, which provides electricity to power all the building systems. The roof was the most challenging aspect of the design, Garber says. It comprises six unique sandwich panels, developed by Northeast Precast in Millville, N.J., made up of three discrete parts: an inner wythe, insula-

PCI Journal | Wi n t e r 2013

33

tion, and an outer wythe. The insulation features a graphite-impregnated expanded polystyrene product, which darkens the surface color for better insulation capacity. The six panels join at the central segment of the inverted hip, tying into a monolithically poured core, and are held together with reinforcing bar if they are load-bearing or fiberglass sheer connectors if they are not. The fiberglass connectors reduce the amount of heat transferred by reinforcing bar. The students designed the house using three-dimensional modeling tools, and then spent several weeks at the Northeast Precast plant helping produce the 26 panels. It was an amazing opportunity for them to learn firsthand about a very sustainable material that will only increase in use in the coming years, Garber says. The students also helped assemble the house, first in a parking lot in Newark, N.J., to prove the concept, then again on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., where the homes were displayed for judging. The need to assemble and disassemble the house meant that the panels could not be welded together. Instead the team attached in. bolts with steel plates to the reinforcing bars during the panel casting process and fastened the panels with washers and nuts. Assembling and moving the house was especially challenging because it weighed 480,000lb (220tonnes), more than the other 18 entries combined. The panels were shipped to each site by J.Supor & Son Trucking Rigging Co. and were erected over five days using a 160-ton crane. Skanska oversaw the construction management process. DOE was a little caught off guard by how heavy the house was, Garber says. Although the design didnt win the competition, it won a lot of attention. More than 200,000 visitors waited in long lines to explore the home before the contest was over.
34 W int e r 2 0 1 3 | PCI Journal

Completed eNJoy! House in Washington, D.C., September 2011. Courtesy of Jonathan Gann, New Jersey Institute of Technology.

eNJoy House served as a novel solution for this contest, Garber says. It brought a great deal of visibility to the precast industry and its engagement with energy-efficient and sustainable housing. Sarah Fister Gale J