Large-Scale Deployment of Performance-Related Specifications for Jointed Plain Concrete Pavement

For the 2015 construction season, the Illinois Tollway management awarded nine contracts that include performance-related specifications for jointed plain concrete pavement (JPCP) to be placed along the I-90 corridor between Chicago and Elgin, Illinois. Overall, the nine contracts have a total value of over $550 million, with more than $50 million of the JPCP subject to performance-related specification incentives and disincentives. Deployment of this volume of performance-related paving has required the development of specifications and special provisions as well as a more focused approach to monitoring the testing of the concrete materials as paving is proceeding. Enhanced communication and documentation processes have also been created to ensure that the flow of materials test data and the impacts that the data are having on the calculation of incentives and disincentives can be transmitted to the contractors as quickly as possible. The communication processes include contractor responses and feedback to the materials test data and the financial impact resulting from the test data, with electronic documentation of communication between the testing labs, the tollway and its quality contractors, and the paving contractors. This study documents the development of the current performance-related JPCP specifications, including the challenges encountered in trying to establish performance-related specifications for such a large number of concurrent projects, the solutions employed to overcome those challenges, and the impact on both the tollway and the contractors as a result of the deployment of performance-related JPCP.