Concrete Overlays

The Best Choice for Durable Pavement Overlays

Overlays | Installation Process | Design Factors | Success Story | Ultra-Thin Overlays

A deteriorated asphalt parking lot, full of potholes and puddles, is both an eyesore and a safety hazard to everyone who uses it. Owners can transform a rutted asphalt surface into an attractive, functional parking area by covering it with a concrete overlay, or whitetopping. Standard overlays are 4-6 inches thick, but they can be as thin as 2 inches (for low-volume roads) or as thick as 17-20 inches (for airport runways). One of the advantages of overlays are their simplicity: surface preparation is minimal, and existing concrete paving equipment can be used for placement.

A properly-designed concrete overlay will provide many years of low-maintenance service. Most projects have an expected life cycle of at least 20 years, while some have lasted for as long as 30-40 years. Although concrete has a higher initial cost than asphalt, it lasts much longer and requires less maintenance, resulting in a significantly lower life cycle cost. An alternative to conventional concrete overlays are ultra-thin overlays, a durable, fast, and competitively-priced overlay technology which has generated much interest in recent years.

AutoCAD Files that Complement the
Guide to Concrete Overlays of Asphalt Parking Lots

The RMC Research & Education Foundation and the National Concrete Pavement Technology Center (CP Tech Center) released the Guide to Concrete Overlays of Asphalt Parking Lots publication last fall to rave reviews.

In an effort to make the Guide even more useful, below we provide AutoCAD files for many of the Guide's Figures (please note, you need to appropriate software to be able to open & view).

Design of Concrete Overlays for Asphalt Parking Lots
A Publication by NRMCA and PCA

Also check out the Guide to Concrete Overlay Solutions (PDF),
a 32-page report by the National Concrete Pavement Technology Center.