Abstract

Urban pavements for buses need to resist high traffic demands without regular invasive maintenance interventions that affect the pavement clients. Although jointed plain concrete pavements are a sustainable alternative that can provide these requirements, sealing the joints and keeping them sealed for 10 years costing up to 45% more than unsealed joints. The objective of the present article is to evaluate the performance of unsealed transverse joints in urban pavements for buses. The field measurements made after 8 years in-service (average) in 270 unsealed joints in Chile, 150 at bus corridors and 120 at their adjacent lanes, show only 10 joints of the bus corridors affected by very low spalling (30 mm) due to the construction process and not to the performance of the unsealed joints. The adjacent lanes have 0 joints affected by spalling. Furthermore, no pumping or measurable joint faulting was detected even after 5 million accumulated equivalent single axle loads. These results, the 50 years of Wisconsin´s experience at USA, and the deficiencies of joint seals place the unsealed joints as a cost-effective alternative to optimize the urban pavements for buses, considering the needs of the pavement clients, i.e. users and municipal transportation agencies