Airport Concrete Jointed Slabs

The savings in placing time and the ability of Welded Wire Reinforcement to hold cracks tightly together are just two reasons that it is the best solution to reinforce jointed airport paving.

Joint spacing is important in the design of airport pavement because the “down-time” due to maintenance of joints is critical. Airport paving differs from highway paving in several ways. Obviously the thickness is greater due to the larger loads, the pavements are wider and aprons and warm-up areas are joined at all four edges. The thickest pavement is required to support standing or slow moving aircraft and joints are placed further apart. The joint material must be capable of resisting the spillage of jet fuel.

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) set design criteria for airport paving that several styles of Welded Wire Reinforcement met depending on the thickness and joint spacing. Both Plain and Deformed WWR are used in airport paving.                     

Placing the WWR in airport pavement can be done in several ways: 1) Supporting WWR on chairs and placing concrete on chaired WWR; 2) placing concrete in two lifts (in this method the WWR is placed on the first lift and the second lift is placed and finished); and 3) placing WWR on concrete placed to the full depth and mechanically depressing the WWR.