Investigation on materials for prefabricated bridge deck pavement and construction technology: Application to a case study of concrete box-girder bridge

The asphalt bridge deck pavement (BDP) is usually constructed on site. The on-site construction quality of asphalt BDP is easily affected by environmental conditions, and the carbon emissions and polluting gas emissions during the construction need to be concerned. The development of prefabricated asphalt BDPs is an available way to mitigate the above problems, but application of prefabricated asphalt BDP has not yet realized due to the limitations of existing materials and construction technology. In this study, the objective is to investigate a feasible construction scheme for the prefabricated asphalt BDP on the concrete box-girder bridge. To achieve this goal, a self-compacting epoxy asphalt concrete (EAC) was developed as the prefabricated asphalt BDP material, and an epoxy asphalt mastic (EAM) was developed as the joint treatment material in the assembly of prefabricated asphalt BDPs. Subsequently, a complete and feasible construction process for the prefabricated asphalt BDP was proposed, and the novel prefabricated bridge deck composite structure of concrete box-girder bridge was designed. The results show that the self-compacting EAC has sufficient fluidity and mechanical properties to meet the construction and performance requirements of prefabricated asphalt BDP. The superior physical and mechanical properties and good cooperative work performance with the origin pavement structure make the EAM an available joint treatment material. The feasible construction scheme of prefabricated asphalt BDP is that the self-compaction EAC is paved on the prefabricated main girder to make prefabrication segments, and then the prefabrication segments are transported to the engineering site and assembled. The prefabricated asphalt BDPs are connected by joint treatment with EAM. Given the height different of prefabricated base layer due to the assembly deviation, a wearing layer is constructed on site to achieve a good surface evenness of BDP.