Evaluation of Interlocking Concrete Pavement Performance

Road pavement surfacings are now an intrinsic part of the development and personalization of municipal public areas. Through its use of form, colour, and texture, interlocking concrete pavements provide an answer to concerns in urban design. Nevertheless, the use of interlocking concrete pavements by cities in the province of Québec remains low. Little is known about the structural behaviour of this type of pavement since only few studies have focused on this topic. This research project aims at the determination of criteria for the design of interlocking concrete pavement in northern environments. For this purpose, parameters linked to performance of this type of pavement have been identified and the experience with interlocking concrete pavement as road surfacing in Québec has been reviewed. This was followed by a laboratory evaluation of the concrete blocks and sandy bed behaviour. Many parameters seem to affect the performance of interlocking concrete pavement. The assessment of the importance of these parameters required an evaluation of the use of interlocking concrete pavement as surfacing material in Québec. An evaluation of nine sites in Québec City, six in Montréal, and three in Longueuil, yielded to the identification of the main parameters linked to the degradation of interlocking concrete pavements in urban context: pavement, joints and sandy bed. This assessment has enabled pinpointing of the problems associated with this type of pavement and to identify the causes of failures as well as the reasons behind the success of existing sites, in particular, the key role of the sandy bed. An experimental program was carried out in laboratory, which consisted in verifying and quantifying the relative importance of these significant parameters using cyclic testing on systems consisting of two types of concrete blocks laid on sandy beds of different thicknesses and mineralogical sources.