Municipal Interlocking Concrete Pavement Performance Modeling

Applied Research Associates, Inc.

This project will help determine total life performance costs under various maintenance cost scenarios and comparing them to that for asphalt and concrete. While the conclusions from these studies don’t offer a compelling life-cycle cost analysis (LCCA) for municipalities to switch from asphalt or concrete pavements to ICP, there are specific situations where ICP has a lower life-cycle costs. These include:

  • Moderate to high traffic loads and moderate to high soil subgrade support

  • Discount rates 3% or lower over a 50-year analysis period

  • Sidewalks

  • Utility cuts and remaining pavement life

The ARA study specifically included the following tasks and deliverables:

  • Task 1 - Survey and Barriers to ICP Implementation: Survey results indicated high resistance to ICP use by municipalities due to bad experiences, lack of funds, plus lack of experience and funds to maintain another pavement system. Not surprisingly, asphalt is particularly embedded into the operations of most cities and has been for at least 70 years. It is less costly to construct and more familiar and more costly to maintain over its life than ICP. While LCCAs are interesting, pavement decisions are made on the basis of available today’s budgets and not costs discounted over 50 years. While the survey sample is small, the results suggest the need for a significant investment by the industry to sell more ICP to municipalities, likely through specialty applications such as traffic calming.

  • Task 2 - Development of Typical Pavement Structures: ICP, asphalt & PCC pavement for LCCA modeling

  • Task 3 - Create detailed LCCA models and preservation (maintenance) plans using Excel

  • Task 4 - Construction M & R Costs with Excel models – This indicated competitive LCCAs with asphalt at discount rates 3% or lower. This is due to lower lifetime ICP maintenance costs compared to asphalt. PCC and asphalt portend lower lifetime cost at 4% and higher discount rates.

  • Task 5a - Utility Cut Impacts – Report delivered and indicates lower life cycle cost with ICPI that preserves pavement life compared to cuts in asphalt or concrete pavements. User delay cost analysis indicates significantly lower delays from ICP. However, total cost from delays is less than 1% of construction costs.

  • Task 5b - Sidewalks – Report delivered indicates ICP sidewalks using dense-graded base provide a lower LCCA than PCC sidewalks.

  • Task 6 - Report and Presentations: To be delivered in 2021.