Use of Innovative Sustainable and Durable Materials in Concrete Pavements

MnROAD | NRRA | Structure & Teams | Rigid Team

Status: Active
Project End Date: February 28, 2028

Objectives

The main goals of this project are to investigate how the various innovative and sustainable concrete materials used to construct 6 new test sections at MnROAD in 2024 affected the production and placement of the concrete and how they will perform early in their life. The project goal will be achieved with the following objectives:

Determine the characteristics that need to be considered when selecting materials like those used in the 2024 MnROAD test sections.
Determine the factors that need to be considered when designing concrete mixtures containing new materials.
Develop guidelines for successfully producing, delivering, and slip-form paving with the new concrete materials.
Determine if any new types of tests need to be performed during paving and later on after curing of the samples.
Determine the impacts the various materials have on early pavement performance, durability, and sustainability.
Determine how agencies can measure the performance of new materials such that they can create or adjust existing specifications.

In order to achieve the project goals, the research team will conduct multiple tasks. The key tasks are the literature review, analysis of the fresh and hardened concrete test results, evaluation of the constructability of the alternative cementitious materials in large-scale constructions such as pavement, annual pavement performance analysis for the first three years after the construction, development of a framework for identifying measures that could be used to evaluate new materials such that agency specifications can be created, or existing ones revised, and creating a final report and Tech Brief. The research will be conducted jointly by the University of Minnesota Duluth (UMD) and the National Concrete Pavement Technology Center (CP Tech Center) at Iowa State University (ISU). UMD will be the lead and CP Tech Center will be a subcontractor in this study.

Tasks

Task 1: Literature review

The team will collect necessary literature on each of the new materials under consideration. Along with the information available in the manufacturers’ sheet, the team will explore the literature from peer reviewed technical journals, DOT practices and standards, and reports of the state and federal funded research projects in the area of alternative cementitious materials, pozzolanic materials and durable and sustainable concrete, etc. The team is also open to supplemental sampling and testing if deemed necessary for the project. This information will be compiled into a technical memorandum delivered to MnDOT, along with a technical presentation to the TAP.

Deliverable: A literature review report.
Due date: February 28, 2025

Task 2: Construction testing analysis

The team will gather and analyze the results of all relevant fresh and hardened concrete tests conducted at the time of mix design, placement of the concrete, and later after the samples were subjected to curing. The test cells were paved in September of 2024. It may be noted that even though the contract of the project was not executed at the time of the paving, the research team representatives attended and monitored the paving of the test cells and documented various observations related to the fresh concrete properties and paving of the cells and challenges met during the placement of the concrete, including observing the workability and finishing of the concrete pavement surface, etc. The team will also reach out to the contractor for feedback about the issues in the mix design process and production of the concrete.

Deliverable: Project update
Due date: April 30, 2025

Task 3: Constructability evaluation

Based on the information gathered from Tasks 1 and 2 and the previous experience of the researchers, especially the ISU team, the Task 3 report will be complied on the constructability of the alternative cementitious materials used in the study in large-scale construction such as pavement. This report will focus on determining the properties and characteristics that need to be considered when selecting the new materials and identifying the factors that need to be considered when designing concrete mixtures containing these materials. Task 3 report will also include a discussion on the production, delivery, and slip-form paving with the concretes prepared with the new materials in this research effort. The cost and affordability of the new materials in the context of large-scale construction will be discussed. The report will highlight any new types of tests that need to be performed during paving and afterwards.

Deliverable: Project update
Due date: August 31, 2025

Task 4: 1st year performance update

The team will summarize and analyze the performance, distresses, and sensor data collected during the first year after construction. Emphasis will be given to identify the influence the new materials have on test section structural responses (e.g., shrinkage, temperature gradient, curling and warping, dynamic and static strains and stresses, joint opening movements, etc.), distresses (fatigue cracks, faulting, spalling, durability issues) and surface roughness (international roughness index).

Deliverable: 1st year performance report
Due date: December 31, 2025

Task 5: 2nd year performance update

The team will summarize and analyze the performance, distresses, and sensor data collected during the second year after construction. Emphasis will be given to identify the influence the new materials have on test section structural responses (e.g., shrinkage, temperature gradient, curling and warping, dynamic and static strains and stresses, joint opening movements, etc.), distresses (fatigue cracks, faulting, spalling, durability issues) and surface roughness (international roughness index).

Deliverable:.2nd year performance report
Due date: December 31, 2026

Task 6: 3rd year performance update

Deliverable: 3rd year performance report
Due date: December 31, 2027

Task 7: Environmental impacts assessment for new materials

This project will perform a preliminary sustainability evaluation of the environmental impacts of the mixture in each of the 2024 test sections based on the environmental data to be provided by MnDOT. The environmental impacts of the five mixtures relative to the control mixture based on the content and known compositions of cementitious materials will be estimated. A similar analysis was performed for the 2022 MnROAD low carbon concrete test cells by Weitzel et al. (2024), presented in Chapter 3 of the report “Development of Mix Designs and Matrix of Materials for MnROAD Low Carbon Concrete Test Site”. In the current project, the environmental impact estimations will be supplemented with EPDs or any product-specific data that are available for the materials and mixtures used in the test cells. Finally, the impact estimates for the 2024 test cells in the current study will be compared to those of the 2022 test cells.

Deliverable: Project update (written report)
Date due: December 31, 2027

Task 8: Performance measures for alternative cementitious materials

The team will develop a framework for identifying measures that could be used to evaluate new materials such that agency specifications can be created, or existing ones revised. The findings from the first three tasks, especially the properties of all the new materials and their influences on the mixture design, concrete production, slip-form paving, concrete workability and finishing, setting time, constructability etc. will be revisited. The above information will be amalgamated with the findings from Tasks 4 through 7 to investigate the effect of the properties of the new materials and their respective concretes on the structural responses, distresses, and performance of the test cells. Focus will be given to identifying and establishing the correlation between various test parameters and pavement performance over the study period (with respect to ESAL). For example, the correlations between properties of new materials and mixture designs (e.g., setting time, curing time, super air meter number, V-Kelly Index, Box-test number, flexural strength of the concrete), distresses (e.g., cracked slab%, transverse joint faulting) and performance (e.g., joint performance, IRI) will be investigated. The analysis in this task will be helpful to identify measures or test parameters (either for the new cementitious materials or their respective concretes) that could be easily determined in laboratory and used to evaluate the new materials based on both structural responses and pavement performance over the traffic load (ESALs).

Deliverable: Performance measures report
Due date: October 31, 2027

Task 9: Draft final report and tech brief

The team will create a draft final report and a tech brief to aid in implementation. The report will summarize and explain the purpose and scope of the project, construction summary, test results, structural responses, distresses, and performance results. The CP Tech Center will create a Tech Brief including the findings from the research to aid in demonstration and implementation.

Deliverable: A draft final report will be prepared and submitted.
Due date: December 31, 2027

Task 10: Editorial review and publication of final deliverables

The team will incorporate editorial review comments and publish final report to MnDOT/ADA standards..

Deliverable: Final report
Due date: February 29, 2028

Project team

Email the Project Team
Principal Investigator: Manik Barman, Ph.D., associate professor, University of Minnesota - Duluth, mbarman@d.umn.edu
Co-PI: Daniel King, P.E., research engineer, National Concrete Pavement Technology Center, Iowa State University, deking@iastate.edu
Co-PI: Peter Taylor, Ph.D., P.E., director, National Concrete Pavement Technology Center, Iowa State University, ptaylor@iastate.edu
Technical Liaison: Tom Burnham, MnDOT, tom.burnham@state.mn.us
Technical Advisory Panel (TAP): Contact us to join this TAP

Emil Bautista, MnDOT
Tom Burnham, MnDOT (TL)
Glenn Engstrom, ARM of Mn
Rob Golish, MnDOT
Bernard Izevbekhai, MnDOT
Rita Lederle, University of St. Thomas
David Lim, Caltrans
Carlos Moro, Texas State University
Cheng Qi, Ash Grove
Quang Tran, Michigan Technological University
Hamed Sadati, Caltrans
Charles Wienrank, ILDOT