ACPA Quarter 3 2019

Concrete Pavement Progress www.acpa.org 12 I - 8 5 S P A R T A N B U R G C O U N T Y In 2015, observations of the cost and safety is- sues caused by pavement distress matched the predictions of AASHTOWare Pavement ME Designmodels, saysThompson.The Spartanburg County section of I-85 is heavily traveled and has an average of 80,000 vehicles daily with truck traffic representing 28%of the volume. “We knew we had to fix the roadway quickly based on our observations and the predictions of PavementME.” The solution was a total rebuild of the north and southbound sections of the interstate, tearing out existing concrete and recycling the permeable asphalt layer in place, saysThompson. The $66.5 million project focused on the reconstruction of the mainline, with few changes to alignment with on and off ramps and followed the footprint already in place. The road is three lanes wide in each direction, with two full-width shoulders on the inside and outside. “Because the shoulders are full width and paved at full depth, we did not place rumble strips; instead, we used profile markers to allow use of a shoulder as a future fourth lane.” The new pavement is a 13-in concrete pavement with joints cut every 15 ft, placed over a 1.75-in asphalt layer and a 12-in cement modified base » continued from page 11