The concrete roads built in Sweden during the 70s were constructed with short unreinforced slabs, joint spacing approximately 5 m, which resulted in limited joint movements and low warping stresses in the slabs. Concrete pavement was laid on a roadbase of cement-bound gravel. The concrete roads from this period have demonstrated good bearing capacity and driving comfort, and have performed very well with limited maintenance and low maintenance costs. After 18 years, however, the concrete section between Malmö and Vellinge was in need of maintenance owing to rutting from studded tyres. The rutted pavement was smoothed by diamond grinding, producing a surface with a fine longitudinal grinding pattern. This maintenance method improved both the transverse and longitudinal evenness of the pavement. There was also an improvement in surface texture, friction and noise. After about one year, the grooves in the surface had become worn. This affected friction, which returned to the same level as before grinding. The noise level also changed. Longitudinal evenness was not affected and was still good as long as four years after maintenance. Abrasion from studded tyres has been measured on a ground and unground pavement. The wear has been very small. The newly ground pavement showed higher initial wear during the first winter. Diamond grinding has subsequently been performed on several other concrete road in Sweden. On new concrete roads, the thickness of the pavement has been increased by 10-20 mm to permit further grinding in the future. (A)
Abstract