This report describes the pavement performance of two concrete roads, the E6 bypass at Falkenberg and the E4.65 link to Arlanda Airport. The evaluation shows very good results for the concrete pavements during the first four and seven years in use respectively. Both the concrete roads are very even longitudinally and rutting has been very limited. The insignificant rutting can be explained by the high resistance of concrete roads to wear from studded tyres and their resistance to deformation by heavy traffic in hot weather. At Falkenberg, the asphalt pavement showed considerably deeper rutting than the concrete pavement. Approximately half the increase in rut depth occurred during the first summer. The large difference in rutting is mainly due to the creation of deformation ruts in the asphalt pavement during hot weather. Both the concrete roads have demonstrated good friction qualities. The concrete pavement with exposed aggregate also have demonstrated good tyre/road noise qualities. For summer tyres, the exposed concrete pavement had a somewhat lower noise level than the asphalt pavement when new. After four years of use, approximately the same noise level was measured on asphalt and concrete pavements for summer tyres. With plain winter tyres and studded winter tyres, the noise level was higher on the concrete pavement. No cracks were observed at the inspection of structural condition of the concrete roads. (Author/publisher)
Abstract