Flexible Pavement Narrow Widening Best Practices and Lessons Learned
The Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) has experienced problems with construction quality and performance on narrow widening projects (i.e., projects that notch and widen pavement to increase lane width 2–8 ft or add a 2- to 5-ft shoulder). Texas has approximately 64,000 lane-miles of pavement with 9- to 11-ft wide lanes, which includes over 35,000 lane miles of Farm-to-Market (FM) roads (MapZapper 2011). In addition, approximately 20%, 26%, and 36% respectively of roadways with 9-, 10-, or 11-ft lanes have either no shoulder or a 1-ft shoulder. These roads are potential candidates for lane or shoulder widening to improve safety performance and increase capacity. However, due to constraints regarding construction equipment widths and other limitations, material selection options and compatibility, construction methods, and other issues, narrow widening projects can present construction and performance problems. These challenges include inadequate compaction of the subgrade, compaction of the base material at the notch-and-widen joint interface, drainage within the pavement and at the pavement surface, either high or depressed surface layer construction joints, and potential safety concerns. To effectively overcome these challenges, TxDOT has initiated this project to prepare a compendium of best practices and lessons learned regarding narrow widening projects.
- Record URL:
- Summary URL:
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Supplemental Notes:
- Report date November 2013; published September 2014. Project Title: Best Practice for Flexible Pavement Structure Widening Projects.
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Corporate Authors:
University of Texas, Austin
Center for Transportation Research, 1616 Guadalupe Street
Austin, TX United States 78701-1255Texas Department of Transportation
Research and Technology Implementation Office, P.O. Box 5080
Austin, TX United States 78763-5080Federal Highway Administration
1200 New Jersey Avenue, SE
Washington, DC United States 20590 -
Authors:
- Burton, Maria
- Kim, MooYeon
- Smit, Andre
- Trevino, Manuel
- Wu, Hui
- Murphy, Mike
- Prozzi, Jorge
- Publication Date: 2014-9
Language
- English
Media Info
- Media Type: Digital/other
- Features: Appendices; Figures; Photos; Tables;
- Pagination: 193p
Subject/Index Terms
- TRT Terms: Best practices; Decision support systems; Flexible pavements; Pavement performance; Pavement widening; Paving; Road shoulders
- Geographic Terms: Texas
- Subject Areas: Construction; Highways; Pavements; I52: Construction of Pavements and Surfacings;
Filing Info
- Accession Number: 01541477
- Record Type: Publication
- Report/Paper Numbers: FHWA/TX-14/0-6748-2, 0-6748-2
- Contract Numbers: 0-6748
- Files: TRIS, ATRI, USDOT, STATEDOT
- Created Date: Oct 21 2014 2:09PM