ABSTRACT
Continuously reinforced concrete pavements (CRCP) with porous asphalt (PA) wearing course have been built on several major motorways in the Netherlands in the past two decades. In general, the PA/CRCP pavement sections are in good condition without severe distresses, rutting, or raveling in the PA wearing course. However, there are few minor-severity to medium-severity transverse reflective cracks in the PA wearing course in several sections. The crack pattern of the underlying CRCP slab and its relation to the reflective cracking in the PA wearing course is rarely reported. As most of the PA wearing courses in the PA/CRCP motorways in the Netherlands are approaching their design life, it provides a good opportunity to study the mechanism of reflective crack development. This paper presents the results of the crack pattern of the underlying CRCP slab and its influences on the occurrence of reflective cracking in the PA wearing course though field investigations on three PA/CRCP motorways, A5, A50 and A73 in the Netherlands. The risk of punchout development and horizontal cracking in the CRCP slab, and the effect of polymer modified PA mixtures to reduce reflective cracking are also discussed.
