Route VA-288 Construction - October 2003

Here are 30 photos of Route VA-288 under construction, taken in October, 2003. Click the thumbnail photo for a larger photo (they range in size from 92 KB to 251 KB, and most are less than 150 KB).

Route 288 construction, looking south from Lucks Lane. The section of VA-288 from VA-76 Powhite Parkway to Lucks Lane in Chesterfield County, opened to traffic in November 2002. Concrete paving is about to begin on the mainline roadways, aggregate base has been placed and a 3 inch layer of asphalt base on top of the aggregate base. Steel rebar grid has just been placed on the asphalt, and the concrete will be poured around the rebar. The already paved roadways are collector-distributor (C-D) roadways, and the roadways under construction are the mainline roadways.
Route 288 construction, looking north, a closer view of the roadway under construction. A 135mm (2.7x) telephoto lens exaggerates the amount of horizontal curvature on the highway, as the curve will be safe at 60 mph.
Route 288 construction, photo taken from Lucks Lane overpass, looking at the point where the 4-lane southbound roadway will divide into a 2-lane mainline roadway and a 2-lane collector-distributor (C-D) roadway. The 2-lane mainline roadway is under construction.
Route 288 construction, photo taken from Lucks Lane overpass, looking at the construction of the 2-lane northbound mainline roadway, a closer view of the steel rebar that was placed for the concrete pavement. After the concrete is poured, the concrete pavement will have the rebar structure within.
Looking north from the overpass where US-60 Midlothian Turnpike crosses VA-288. Aggregate base material is being placed on the mainline of VA-288, as part of the pavement construction. This section will have two mainline 2-lane roadways, and will have two 2-lane collector-distributor (C-D) roadways to serve the cloverleaf interchange. 
Looking north from the overpass where US-60 Midlothian Turnpike crosses VA-288. Aggregate base material is being placed on the mainline of VA-288, as part of the pavement construction. This photo was taken from the same vantage point as the previous photo, but it was taken with a 135mm (2.7x) telephoto lens, instead of the 50mm (1.0x) regular lens used previously.
Looking north, heavy excavation for the construction of the VA-288 roadways. The VA-650 River Road bridge can be seen. Fine grading for the roadways is underway. This is in Goochland County, about 1/2 mile north of the James River.
Looking north, heavy excavation for the construction of the VA-288 roadways. The VA-650 River Road bridge can be seen. This photo was taken from the same vantage point as the previous photo, but it was taken with a 135mm (2.7x) telephoto lens, instead of the 50mm (1.0x) regular lens used previously.
[New day]
A central mix concrete plant was set up on the southeast quadrant of the interchange between US-60 and VA-288. This is being utilized to produce the concrete for the VA-288 roadway between VA-76 Powhite Parkway and the Chesterfield-Powhatan county line. The plant was running when I took the photo, and this and the following photos are associated with the same concrete paving operation over a 2 day period. The photos above this were taken on prior days.
The central mix concrete plant, with the barrel tipped forward to pour the concrete into the dump body of a dump truck. The dump truck will transport the load of concrete to the concrete paving train, which is 3 miles away on this morning.

A central mix concrete plant works on the same basic principle as a ready-mix concrete truck, with a rotating steel barrel to mix the concrete, but the central mix plant is designed for greater capacity output. The barrel on a truck would be about 8 to 10 cubic yards in mix volume, and the barrel at a central mix plant would be about 20 to 30 cubic yards in mix volume. With either type of concrete production, the concrete plant injects the materials into the barrel for mixing, in order of injection: aggregate, sand, cement, water, and admixtures. Modern concrete plants are automated (mechanically, electronically, and computerized) so that the proper quantities of each material are injected into the mixing barrel.

A zoomed-in view from the previous photo.
Route 288 construction, looking north, photo taken from Lucks Lane in Chesterfield County. Concrete paving operation is underway on the 2-lane northbound roadway.
Route 288 construction, looking north, photo taken from Lucks Lane in Chesterfield County. Concrete paving operation is underway on the 2-lane northbound roadway.
Route 288 construction, looking north, photo taken from Lucks Lane in Chesterfield County. Concrete paving operation is underway on the 2-lane northbound roadway.
Route 288 construction, looking south. The overpass bridge is Lucks Lane. Just beyond the bridge can be seen the point where the 4-lane southbound roadway will divide into a 2-lane mainline roadway and a 2-lane collector-distributor (C-D) roadway. The 2-lane mainline roadway is under construction.
Route 288 construction, looking north, photo taken from Lucks Lane in Chesterfield County. Concrete paving operation is underway on the 2-lane northbound roadway. Closer view of the paving train, with the 3 separate machines visible, from left to right (the direction of the paving operation), the curing and texturing machine, the slipform paving machine, and the spreader machine.
Similar vantage point as above photo, but a closer view of the slipform paving machine and the spreader machine.
Similar vantage point as above photo, but a closer view of the spreader machine. A dump truck (that received its load from the central mix concrete plant) is depositing a load of wet concrete onto a conveyor belt that deposits the concrete onto the roadway. After several loads of concrete are piled in a large mound, the spreader machine moves forward (it has treads) and shapes the wet concrete into the approximate cross-section of the final product.
Similar vantage point as above photo, but a closer view of the slipform paving machine. After the spreader machine has shaped the wet concrete into the approximate cross-section of the final product, the slipform paving maching follows right behind (it has treads also), and shapes the concrete slab into the exact shape of the pavement cross-section.
Similar vantage point as above photo, but a closer view of the curing and texturing machine. After the slipform paving machine has shaped the concrete slab into the exact shape of the pavement cross-section, the curing and texturing machine follows right behind, and makes a 'backward pass' with a screed to apply a longitudinal set of grooves about 1/2 inch deep in the surface of the pavement; and then makes a 'forward pass' to apply a curing compound to the surface of the pavement.
Route 288 construction, looking north, photo taken from Lucks Lane in Chesterfield County. Concrete paving operation is underway on the 2-lane northbound roadway. A whole line of dump trucks are waiting to deposit their concrete.
Route 288 construction, looking north, photo taken from near Lucks Lane in Chesterfield County. Concrete paving operation is underway on the 2-lane northbound roadway.
Route 288 construction, looking north, photo taken from near Lucks Lane in Chesterfield County. Concrete paving operation is underway on the 2-lane northbound roadway.
Route 288 construction, looking north, photo taken from near Lucks Lane in Chesterfield County. Concrete paving operation is underway on the 2-lane northbound roadway.
Route 288 construction, looking north, photo taken from near Lucks Lane in Chesterfield County. Concrete paving operation is underway on the 2-lane northbound roadway.
[New day]
Route 288 construction, looking south from Lucks Lane, a week after the the previous photos. The northbound mainline roadway has been paved with concrete pavement.
Route 288 construction, looking south from Lucks Lane. This photo was taken from the same vantage point as the previous photo, but it was taken with a 135mm (2.7x) telephoto lens, instead of the 50mm (1.0x) regular lens used previously.
Route 288 construction, looking north, photo taken from Lucks Lane in Chesterfield County, a few minutes after the previous photo.
Route 288 construction, looking north. This photo was taken from the same vantage point as the previous photo, but it was taken with a 135mm (2.7x) telephoto lens, instead of the 50mm (1.0x) regular lens used previously.
Route 288 construction, looking north, a closer view of the roadway that was just paved. A 135mm (2.7x) telephoto lens exaggerates the amount of horizontal curvature on the highway, as the curve will be safe at 60 mph.

Concrete Pavement

From PCA: Concrete Basics - Concrete Products:

Since the first strip of concrete pavement was completed in 1893, concrete has been used extensively for paving highways and airports as well as business and residential streets. There are four types of concrete pavement:

  • Plain pavements with dowels that use dowels to provide load transfer and prevent faulting,
  • Plain pavements without dowels, in which aggregate interlock transfers loads across joints and prevents faulting,
  • Conventionally reinforced pavements that contain steel reinforcement and use dowels in contraction joints, and
  • Continuously reinforced pavements that have no contraction joints and are reinforced with continuous longitudinal steel.

The following link has photos of a concrete slipform paving machine.

Concrete Paving Basics, by American Concrete Pavement Association (ACPA). This webpage discusses concrete paving fundamentals. Excerpts (in blue text):
 There are two basic methods of building concrete pavement: fixed-form paving and slipform paving. Fixed-form paving requires the use wooden or metal side forms that are set up along the perimeter of the pavement before paving. Slipform paving does not require any steel or wooden forms. A slipform paving machine extrudes the concrete much like a caulking gun extrudes a bead of caulk for sealing windows. In general, slipform paving is preferred by contractors for large paving areas where it can provide better productivity with less labor than fixed-form paving.  

After the fixed-form or slipform equipment passes, most contractors have crew members use hand-tools to further finish the slab. These operations are called: finishing, floating or straightedging. The entire set of paving and placing machines and activities is called the paving train. On a highway project the typical paving train consists of a spreader or belt placer, slipform paver, and curing and texturing machine. Smaller paving projects may use only the slipform machine.

Links About Concrete Pavement

New Technologies Boost Concrete Pavement Smoothness, by Better Roads, March 2003.

Concrete Pavements - Past, Present, and Future, by Thomas J. Pasko Jr., Public Roads, July/August 1998.

Route 288 Concrete Pavement

The western 17.5-mile-long section of Route 288 will have concrete pavement on the 6.5-mile-long southern portion, and asphalt pavement on the 11.0-mile-long northern portion. The entire 17.4-mile-long southern section of Route 288 in Chesterfield County (between I-95 and VA-76) that was completed in 1989, has continuously reinforced concrete pavement, and the new western section of Route 288 will extend from where the highway ended in 1989 at VA-76 Powhite Parkway, paving with continuously reinforced concrete pavement from that point to about 100 feet south of the county line between Chesterfield County and Powhatan County. Route 288 will have asphalt pavement from near the Chesterfield / Powhatan county line to where Route 288 ends at I-64 in Goochland County.


Concrete paving train, on Route 288 near Lucks Lane, October 2003. Click image for large image (608 KB), for the best close-in view of all the images on this webpage.

The following information about the Route 288 pavement design was taken from the Typical Section sheets of the design plans (Plan and Profile of Proposed State Highway) of the following projects:

VDOT Project: 0288-020-105,C-504
County of Chesterfield
Route 288 Improvements
From: 1.745 km South of Route 76 EB
To: 2.907 km North of Route 76 EB		 VDOT Project: 0288-020-105,C-508
County of Chesterfield
Route 288 Improvements
From: 2.907 km North of Route 76
To: 2.694 km North of Route 60

Pavement design from top layer downward:

250 mm Continuously Reinforced Concrete Pavement
 
75 mm Asphalt Stabilized Open Graded Drainage Layer
150 mm Cement Stabilized Aggregate Material, Type 1, No.21A, with 4 Percent Cement By Weight

Unsuitable Material To Be Removed And Replaced With 450 mm Of No.1 Open Graded Coarse Aggregate Below 150 mm Of No.21B Dense Graded Aggregate.  Locations And Depths Indicated On Cross Sections.
 

Metric conversions
250 mm = 9.84 in.
75 mm = 2.95 in.
150 mm = 5.91 in.
450 mm = 17.72 in.

Lead article for Route VA-288 Construction - Western Section

All photos taken by Scott Kozel.

Copyright © 2004 by Scott Kozel. All rights reserved. Reproduction, reuse, or distribution without permission is prohibited.

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By Scott M. Kozel, Roads to the Future

(Created 12-10-2003, updated 4-2-2004)