ABSTRACT
Roller Compacted Concrete (RCC) is a mass concrete with zero slump consisting of well-graded aggregate, cementitious materials and water. RCC has many advantages over other pavement types, particularly cost and speed of construction. However, it also presents difficulties with high-speed applications related to surface texture and surface evenness. These difficulties have so far restricted the use of RCC to the lower layers of normal roads. This study investigates the possibility of expanding the application of RCC for normal roads and highways by using a two-layer system of roller compacted concrete. The suitability of RCC for such an application depends fundamentally on bond strength between the layers. The bond strength measured by shear and tensile tests was studied for three construction conditions: a surface layer placed within one hour of the lower layer, within three hours and within 24 hours. The durability of two layer of RCC with regard to freezing and thawing tests was also studied. The results show that the material has potential for this application but that mix design can be expected to be critical. Using all these findings, it is concluded that workable RCC pavements comprising two layers, bonded adequately, can often be used successfully for pavements subjected to light and medium density traffic.
