Glass fiber-reinforced polymer (GFRP) reinforcing bar offers the potential of reducing construction costs and improving pavement performance. Thisarticle describes field tests that were conducted in West Virginia to evaluate GFRP reinforcing bars in continuously reinforced concrete pavements (CRCP). The West Virginia Department of Transportation allocated a 2,000 ft long, two-lane section of a highway as the testing ground for the study. The experimental design incorporated two CRCP sections--a GFRP-CRCP test section and a steel-CRCP test segments--for comparison. The sections were monitored continuously during the first three days to investigate early-age cracking behavior. As the concrete cured during this period, changeswere recorded in concrete strain, reinforcement strain, and temperature.Researchers located, counted and measured early-age cracks to estimate the spacing and width. This data, along with additional crack data obtainedone month and four months after construction, were analyzed and compared. The data on early-age performance from the GFRP-CRCP field test section compares favorably with those from the steel-CRCP section. Crack width for the GFRP-CRCP section was larger than that of the steel-CRCP section dueto larger crack spacing and lower stiffness of reinforcement, but it still meets AASHTO limiting criterion for crack width. The findings also showthat GFRP-reinforced CRCPs can be constructed at low cost and without added construction time. More research is needed to evaluate the long-term performance of GFRP.
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