Portland Cement Pervious Concrete: A Field Experience from Sioux City

Abstract

Portland Cement Pervious Concrete (PCPC) is becoming more utilized across the U.S. due to increased requirements for stormwater management. This paper details the experience of the installation of a PCPC test section/ parking area in Sioux City, Iowa. In order to evaluate a large number of mixture designs, the test section incorporated five different mixtures, each placed with and without air entraining agent, for a total of ten sections. Cylinder samples were prepared during construction and compared with core data. The samples were tested for void ratio, permeability, unit weight, compressive strength development with time, and spatial distribution of material properties across the pavement profile. The results show a high degree of variability in material properties between the top and bottom layers, especially in the bottom five cm (two in.). Strong relationships between unit weight, permeability, strength, and void ratio suggest that void ratio criteria determined from unit weight testing has the potential for use as QA/QC criteria for pervious concrete field placement.