This was followed by a project in Detroit, where several contractors built the largest fiber-reinforced concrete overlay project to date at that time. The overlay was placed on milled asphalt and was designed to withstand heavy truck traffic and other vehicles traveling through the area.Ĭoncrete overlay solutions came into sharp focus during that decade, with four overlays placed in Iowa by the Jackson Construction Company (now Cedar Valley Construction). A slipform paver moves along the grade as E&B Paving’s crew places a 6-in. As a result, finding cost-effective solutions to keep the road network going has been a constant challenge since the 1970s. road network finally took shape, however, a new challenge emerged for highway engineers to address pavements that were exceeding their original design lives. That first concrete overlay was one of 15 placed between 19, a fact that might surprise some people, considering that the first concrete pavements were placed in 18.Īlthough overlay technology has been around for more than a century, the focus of the first half of the 20th century was on building new highways, including the Lincoln Highway, Route 66, the Interstate Highway System, and other roadways and airports that linked our rapidly growing nation.Īs the U.S. The first documented use of concrete to resurface pavements dates back to 1901.