Development of Reinforced Concrete Slab Bridge System for Immediate Traffic Opening During Curing Period of Cement Concrete Pavement

A temporary traffic bridge system (TTBS) is proposed for immediate traffic opening during cast-in-place cement concrete pavement construction in high-traffic urban areas. The basic behaviors such as strains, stresses, and deflections of the TTBS fabricated using reinforced concrete slabs were analyzed numerically and verified through experiments. The concept of the TTBS was explained first, and a detailed description of its components was provided. Afterwards, a TTBS using reinforced concrete slabs was designed and a numerical analysis model for it was created. Using the numerical analysis model of the TTBS, the basic behaviors such as stresses and deflections of the slabs were analyzed when the loads of heavy vehicles such as buses were applied to the interior, joint, and edge of the reinforced concrete slabs. In addition, the behavioral characteristics according to the configuration of the joint between slabs of the TTBS were also analyzed. It was confirmed that the strength of the TTBS can be secured by designing with appropriate shear keys. These shear keys simply create a physical interlocking at the slab joints without applying special elements to the slab joints. They also enable the rapid assembly and disassembly of slabs suitable for the TTBS. To verify these numerical analysis results, small-scale reinforced concrete slabs were manufactured and a TTBS was constructed to conduct experiments. The behaviors obtained through experiments of the reinforced concrete slabs were compared with the behaviors obtained through numerical analyses, and it was confirmed that they were very similar, thus verifying the appropriateness of the numerical analysis model. This study eventually demonstrated that the TTBS can effectively be applied to convert existing asphalt pavements in congested urban areas to more durable cement concrete pavements while minimizing the public inconvenience caused by traffic control. Furthermore, the TTBS constructed using reinforced concrete slabs was evaluated as structurally safe and thus suitable for field application.