Concrete pavements have been used for highways, airports, streets, local roads, parking lots, industrial facilities, and other types of infrastructure. When properly designed and built out of durable materials, concrete pavements can provide many decades of service with little or no maintenance. “Concrete generally has a higher initial cost than asphalt but lasts longer and has lower maintenance costs”.
In some cases, however, design or construction errors or poorly selected materials have considerably reduced pavement life. It is therefore important for pavement engineers to understand materials selection, mixture proportioning, design and detailing, drainage, construction techniques, and pavement performance. It is also important to understand the theoretical framework underlying commonly used design procedures, and to know the limits of applicability of the procedures.