There was an early glory time for concrete, which dominated road building in North America, followed by the boom in asphalt after World War II as the fast and cheap construction material of popularity. Now the pendulum is swinging back. City planners and constructors are taking the long view, regarding total life cycle cost, climate resiliency and corridor up-time, and concrete is again coming to the front.  Check https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Concrete to learn more about concrete.

It takes time and is not generally observable, but bids, memos and trial runs are out there. Planners’ procurement teams analyze delivery systems and warranty terms today, not just tons of materials and square yards of pavement.

Concrete vs. Asphalt Cost Trends

For years many agencies paid more attention to the lowest bid, and asphalt won. Fluctuating petroleum prices and short work periods have changed the formula, however. Day stuffers presently take account of total life costs, total user delay and long-range pavement maintenance needs, and not just costs for Day One.

• Concrete has a higher bid price at first, but result of the few overlays and longer life, results in a lesser cost over a period of 30 to 50 years.
• Asphalt binder follows the oil markets; concrete cost is less related to the volatility of energy and therefore lessening the budget risk when fuel price fluctuations occur.
• There are fewer costs of maintenance required, giving less lane traffic control, thus less cost on this account and less user delay cost on busy corridors.
• For agencies that use the asphalt paving service to take care of their rapid trouble, the use of a concrete main with asphalt shouldering will result in rapid repairs along with long life.

There are many agencies running pair of pair pilot tests that will give them the real costs of the maintenance factor over a period of years, 10 probably. The ability to lock down specifics in long-term performance will also take away some of the risk for the agencies and allow for a more certain crib life costing.

Modern Concrete Innovations

Better mix specifications are responsible for changing designs also. High-performance mixes of supplementary cementitious materials, steel or synthetic fibers and performance lot gradation will give you better crack control and speed of openings. Roller compacted concrete to truck courts and bus pads, continuously reinforced concrete pavement to high volume routes are some of the mixes of tools to choose from. Pre-cast panel systems allow for night work and fully opened lanes by morning.

Local teams—whether a city crew or an asphalt contractor Canyon Rim working alongside concrete specialists—now coordinate mixed-material corridors and staged rebuilds to keep traffic moving during construction.

These new ideas also reward the firms giving good sub-base prep work, which is essential also to help to put in the slab well and support it properly. The net results are smoother rides, better load transfer and less early age repairing. Digital sensors and maturity measurements help the crews to time opens accurately thus giving better quality control. 3-D stringless paving and automated dowel bar insertion help with accuracy and help to remove some of the labor intensiveness.

Sustainability Benefits

Sustainability also goes into pavement selections to-day by the Agencies. Embodied carbon, material circularity, energy used over decades are all factors weighed by the different agencies. The long service life of concrete and the philosophy of using normal recycling enable to make sure that the projects will meet the stringent environmental goals.

• Concrete can include products of different industries and can reclaim aggregates thus eliminating the need for virgin and lessen the embodied impacts of these aggregates.
• Because concrete usually requires fewer treatments than frequent surfacing or overlays, total consumption of materials over a corridor’s life can be reduced.
• Smooth and rigid surfaces will result in reduced rolling resistance for heavy vehicles and less fuel and emission consumption in freight and transit fleets.
• Where asphalt prevails methodical sealcoating and cracking maintenance may be facilitated by concrete mainline in a broader context of sustainability of the entire network.

Municipal life cycle studies are increasingly putting into their equation’s user costs and downtime rather than simply their material footprint. Some municipalities have linked concrete main ways with either permeable shoulders or bioswales to capture storm water and reduce combined sewer loads.

Urban Heat Island Reduction

To put it frankly, cities are warmer than surrounding areas and pavements have their effect. Because of concrete’s lower albedo it reflects more heat than the customary dark surfaces and less heat is reflected back towards the streets, thus contributing to the modest reduction of ambient temperature located adjacent to streets. This reflectivity will enable lower lighting or fewer luminaries in some cases thus allowing for economies in energy supply for agencies.

In conjunction with street tree planting programs, and cool-roofs, reflective pavements can be a reasonable portion of the overall ambient heat abatement recommendations. Advising the use of lighter aggregate or textures or lighter finished surfaces, etc., will further increase heat reflectivity where streets are hot. Designers will compensate for glare and contrast in using texture, pigment, and streetscape shads to keep visibility good for drivers and pedestrians.

Durability and Noise Control

Concrete durability is a very large factor in its rebirth. Properly jointed, drained and cured slabs are great for bus lines and intersections and heavily traveled routes due to their wonderful rut resistance in addition to the resistance to fuel-heating. Click here for further information.

The evolved texture of surfaces has done wonders in their application to heading noise abatement and safety without a loss of rideability.

• The next generation concrete surfaces and diamond-ground textures can match or even exceed dense graded asphalt for quiet operation compatible with high-speed highway use.
• For heavy traffic, concrete holds strait under braking and turning loads at signals where the signal occurs, thus reducing the shoving effect, with the ensuing need for patching.
• Water drainage and joint maintenance limits water spray and allows for skit resistance over the life of the asset and improves safer corridors throughout that life.

Where sound walls are unavailable, the quieter textures offer a cost-compatible form of meeting the neighborhood goals.

With every lane closure now counted and each ton of carbon counted, it is more apparent that modern concrete is the answer to long life, good performance, heat sensitive streets, i.e., shift from asphalt to overlain pavement by well-planned asphalt systems. That mixture of achieved strategic-sized concrete and smart asphalt treatment brings the best overall network performance generally.