Continuous full-lane replacements are appropriate when long stretches of any given lane have failed beyond the reasonable use of intermittent repair techniques. The far-right travel lanes of many heavily traveled routes are frequently the first lanes to fail, especially in interstate-type highways with high volumes of heavy truck traffic. This was the case on a section of a project that Pro-Cast Products manufactured on Interstate 15 near Ontario, California, where a high volume of trucks traveling from a nearby container terminal caused early deterioration of the two right –hand lanes of I-15 (approximately 1.5 miles in length) near its intersection with Interstate 10. This section of I-15 carried about 200,000 vehicles per day, so replacement activities had to be limited to eight-hour night work windows.

Continuous Panel Replacement Photo Gallery

During each eight hour work window, existing pavement was removed, the existing cement treated base was milled to depth (where necessary), bedding material was installed, and precast panels were placed and grouted. An average of about 250 lane-feet of pavement was replaced in this manner each night, with the replacement rates reaching as high as approximately 500 lane-feet on some nights. All the I-15 travel lanes were open to traffic right up to and immediately following each eight-hour night work window. Approximately 1.5 miles of the two right-hand lanes were replaced in these short work windows demonstrating that long sections of deteriorated pavement can be replaced efficiently with precast panels during overnight work windows.

Links to NPCA resources:

1.) NPCA Precast Paving Page
2.) NPCA Manual for Jointed Precast Concrete Paving
3.) NPCA Precast Concrete Pavement Slab Installation Videos
4.) NPCA Caltrans Project Photos