ACPA Concrete Pavement Progress Q1 2020

www.acpa.org Quarter 1, 2020 13 Perry was convinced that he and the other en- gineers working on the project had discovered an innovation that would change the way all roadway pavements were constructed and wrote, “There is no doubt in my mind that the hexagon panel is one of the refinements that will come to cement concrete pavement design and will become very widely used in the near future. It is possibly a matter of accident that the merits of this design has (sic) been discovered by us, and I would like to see Longview in the lead on any new thing whose merit is beyond question.” The hexagonal panel may not have attained the widespread acceptance Perry anticipated, but the concrete roads placed in Longview in 1924 are still in use today and the hexagonal design was still used until the 1960s, says Ken Hash, city engineer. “Today, I would guess that 75% of our streets are concrete, with at least half of them constructed with a hexagon panel.” The original hexagonal pavements were hand poured in 1924. Perry noted in his letter there was some opposition to what he called the “hon- eycomb” design. He prevailed after urging plan- ners to use the hexagonal concrete panels, which he said would take heavier loads to “produce impairment or destruction than a square panel of 8 in. in depth.” The pavement was hand poured and water-cured, which may have contributed to the pavement’s longevity, Hash suggests. “Because it was a new city, they had time to allow the pavement to “The hexagonal panel may not have attained the widespread acceptance Perry anticipated, but the concrete roads placed in Longview in 1924 are still in use today and the hexagonal design was still used until the 1960s.” continues on page 15 » L O N G V I E W H I S T O R I C A L P A V E M E N T