Cement Concrete Road Construction Procedure | Concrete Pavements

5 min readOct 5, 2021

What is Cement Concrete Road?

The cement concrete roads are in the form of monolithic slabs of cement concrete which serve two functions simultaneously, namely, as the load-carrying base and as the wearing surface. According to the structural behavior, the pavements can be classified as flexible pavement or rigid pavement. Bituminous concrete is one of the best flexible pavement layer materials. Various other types of bituminous roads are considered as flexible pavements. The cement concrete roads, on the other hand, are treated rigid pavements because of their rigidity.

Cement Concrete Road Construction

Cement concrete road is a highly rigid surface and hence, for the success of such roads, the following two conditions should be satisfied:

They should rest on non-rigid surface having uniform bearing capacity.
The combined thickness or depth of the concrete pavement and the non-rigid base should be sufficient to distribute the wheel load on a sufficient area of the sub-base so that the pressure on the unit area remains within the permissible safe bearing capacity of the soil. The cement concrete roads are becoming popular because of the fact that concrete of desired quality can be prepared by the moderm techniques of cement concrete construction.

Advantages of Cement Concrete Roads:

The following are the benefits of concrete roads:

It can be designed more accurately in the distribution of load.
It does not increase rot and hnce, it provides a quiet environment.
It can look good at night because of the brightness of the color.
It has low maintenance costs.
It has low resistance which reduces the running costs of cars.
It has a more useful life than the road of any other — the type of construction.
It is dusty and has no internal appeal.
It is not slippery.
It may be able to withstand the pressures of s_evere and stress caused by hot and humid soil conditions by setting the appropriate stiffness.
You may use an old concrete road as a foundation or foundation for a new concrete road or more treatment.
The weather and the temperature are not affected.
It allows the calculation of higher heights in curves with more precision of calculations than other types of roads.
It requires a flat camber as the surface does not penetrate. Concrete Roadway Construction

Disadvantages of Cement Concrete Roads:

The following is the concrete road concrete condition:

It causes the area to glow with the brightest sunlight and the white light from above can interfere with the focus of the driver who has caused the accident.
It does not allow easy access to the ground floor where drainage must be opened to access water pipes, sewer pipes and power lines.
It is difficult to repair and requires professional supervision.
It is less enduring than WB.M. or bituminous binder surfaces.
It can be cracked, twisted, and twisted.
It has noise under heavy-duty traffic and vibration is set by heavy, fast-moving, self-propelled vehicles.
It shows that it is very expensive for initial costs especially when the right local value is not available.
It responds. easily due to the intensity of the pressures and the stress caused by the impact and therefore may be digested under such conditions. It takes a long time to protect, treat and keep the area off the road which can cause delays and problems in business facilities.

Methods of Construction of Cement Concrete Roads:

The cement concrete roads can either be constructed in a single course or two courses. In single course pavement, or two courses. In single course pavement, the entire depth of concrete is composed of homogeneous material. The concrete is laid in two courses or layers of equal or different depths with different concrete compositions in the two-course method.

Following are the three methods of construction of cement concrete roads:

Alternate bay method
Continuous bay method
Expansion joint and strip method.

1. Alternate bay method:

In this method, if the road is of a single lane, it is divided into suitable bays of 6m to 8m length, and the construction work is carried out in alternate bays as shown in fig. below.

Fig2. Single Lane Concrete road[/caption]

JOINTED REINFORCED CONCRETE PAVEMENT[/caption]

If the road is of the double lane; the construction work is carried out in odd bays of one lane and even bays of the other lane as shown in fig. 3. The construction of the next bays is commenced after the concrete laid in earlier bays dries out, i.e., nearly after one week or so.

Fig. 3. Double Lane Road with longitudinal and transverse joints[/caption]

The following are the advantages of this method:

Treated ports can serve as an additional working area for concrete preparation.
The construction of joints can be done easily and their width can be maintained properly.

This approach, however, faces the following issues:

As the construction work spreads across the full width of the road, traffic will have to be completely diverted.
During the rainy season, water collects on the unpaved harbors.
Requires a large number of rotating joints that can increase construction costs and reduce the quality of the smooth ride more.
It takes more time to complete the task.

2. Continuous bay method:

This is also known as strip method or full-widthmethod. The entire width of the road is constructed continuously from one end to the other. No provision for expansion joint is made. However, a construction joint is provided where the new concrete meets the previously laid concrete.

This method is suitable for roads having width not exceeding 4.5 m and it is very simple in construction. However, it does not stand a high temperature variation as no provision is made for expansion and contraction.

It also requires the provision of a temporary diversion road since the entire road width is under construction. This method is generally not favoured.