Long-term performance of BCSA concrete airfield pavement rehabilitations.

Abstract: Airfield logistics often prohibits long-term runways, taxiways, or apron closures for concrete pavement rehabilitation or reconstruction. Demanding airfield traffic requires construction alternatives such as overnight closures for pavement rehabilitation. Alternative cements with rapid-strength development are an option allowing airports to rehabilitate airfield pavements in short time frames. Other characteristics of these alternative binders, such as low shrinkage or shrinkage compensation also allow innovation in pavement design such as increasing slab size, or post-tensioning design.
Belitic calcium-sulfoaluminate (BCSA) cement is an alternative cement well known for rapidly gaining strength. It has been widely used during the last couple of decades to develop high-performance concrete mixes designed to endure and perform in various climates and traffic closure requirements. BCSA cements have been in use in the United States since the seventies and are specified as ASTM C1600 cement.
Since the early 1990s, many airports across the United States and abroad have used BCSA concrete during overnight closure, with airport operations typically resuming in the morning. Many of these pavements are still in service. This presentation will cover three specific projects: Seattle International Airport (Port of Seattle), Burbank Airport (California), and Rockford Airport (Illinois). The first two were built using BCSA, and Rockfors was constructed using CSA-based shrinkage compensating concrete. All three projects have been subject to forensic evaluation 30 years after service. The presentation will go over the concrete performance and pavement evaluation of these three CSA-based concrete pavements.