The Interlocking Concrete Pavement Institute (ICPI) and nearly a dozen paver manufacturers in California are sponsoring a heavy vehicle simulator test on a permeable interlocking concrete pavement (PICP) track at UC Davis. The test will simulate years of truck traffic, demonstrating the viability of permeable concrete installations in long-term civil engineering projects.

The University of California Pavement Research Center at UC Davis will load 2,600 square feet of permeable interlocking concrete pavement (PICP) test track with a heavy vehicle simulator to develop better design tools for PICP producers. The test track is the first of its kind in the western hemisphere.

The simulator can apply wheel loads of 5,600 to 45,000 pounds that simulate years of truck traffic in a matter of months. The PICP test track includes 80 mm-thick pavers with permeable jointing stone and 50 mm-thick bedding stone over 100 mm of ASTM No. 57 stone. The sub-base thicknesses vary between 450, 650 and 950 mm, and sit on a weak clay subgrade. The pavements are instrumented with pressure plates on the soil subgrade and under the bedding layer to measure how stresses from the wheel loads are distributed.

The test results will provide information for the modeling and development of base thickness charts over a variety of soils and wheel load conditions. The large-scale assessment should provide assurance on PICP performance to civil engineers, especially in saturated soils. Load testing is expected to take about four months.

Paver producers from California including Angelus Block, Orco Block, Oldcastle, Basalite, RCP Block, Olsen Pavingstone, Air Vol Block, Pavestone, Pacific Interlock, Calstone, and Acker Stone are funding the project, with additional support from the California Nevada Cement Association and the ICPI Foundation for Education and Research.

Material donations included 2,640 square feet of permeable pavers from Basalite, a roll of geotextile (5,000 square feet) from Tencate Mirafi, and a new Weber CR7 60 kN (13,500 lb/f) plate compactor with a compaction indicator loaned by WeberMT. Kessler Soil Engineering Products also donated a lightweight falling weight deflectometer for stiffness testing of the soil, sub-base, base and pavers.