Best Practices of concrete Pavement Transition Design and Construction

This project involves most types of transitions that consist of a variety of joint combinations and slab configurations. In many instances, the performance of the transition areas may become the focal area for maintenance due to improper design or construction that otherwise could have been avoided. Districts regularly designing and constructing concrete pavements have developed standards and practices for some transitions and have learned from experience what the best practices are. However, these practices are not yet established for districts interested in building more concrete pavements. In this regard, information is needed to address the different types of issues that arise in everyday design that in many cases depend on the support conditions, slab geometries, aggregate type, weather, and the traffic levels expected over the service life. This project conducted a survey of Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) and other state highway association (SHA) practices and identified the best practices toward incorporating them into guidelines for design and construction of transition areas that will enable TxDOT engineers and designers to avoid the inappropriate practices.