Introduction. Road and highway development must be closely interconnected. Unfortunately, in Ukraine, after the creation of a network of public roads in the 1970s, due to the unstable financing of the road industry, there has been a significant lag in the development and improvement of roads from world rates and trends in the development of road transport. As a result, this has led to the nonconformity of the state of Ukrainian roads with the requirements of modern transport loads and the inability to pass existing vehicles without destroying the roads. One way to solve this problem is to find and use modern, efficient materials and technologies that will help to restore the existing network of roads, ensure high quality and durability of roads.
Problem statement. The real situation in the road sector of Ukraine requires the adoption of urgent measures to bring the state of the network of public roads to the normative one. The Ukrainian highway network was designed and built in the 1970s with the existing calculated loadings of that time, namely 6 tons per axle, which has doubled today. Due to lack of proper financing and violation of overhaul terms, more than 90 % of the highway network do not meet the requirements of regulations and need major overhaul. The development of road transport and its growth loading capacity also require an increase in the carrying capacity of roads. In this regard, there is an urgent need to find efficient materials that can handle modern transport loads and ensure road durability in the face of changing climatic factors.
Purpose. The purpose of the study is a content analysis of the world experience and approaches to the use of cement pavements, requirements of regulations for the design and construction of rigid road pavements, as well as to determine the possibility of using these materials and technologies in the road industry of Ukraine.
Materials and methods. The analysis of publications concerning the world experience and modern approaches to the use of cement pavement is carried out.
Results. The analysis of the world experience has shown the history of cement concrete origin and its evolution, ways and current schemes of its application, problems of construction and maintenance of road pavements made of cement concrete, as well as modern approaches to correcting their defects or preventing their manifestation. It is proved that it is advisable to use cement concrete to enhance the road pavement in conditions of significant climate warming and the need to ensure the passage of traffic flows which include a large proportion of heavy vehicles. A number of its advantages over asphalt concrete, the independence of its strength and deformability from temperature and humidity, as well as the duration of loading, a higher margin of fatigue strength and the ability to operate at high traffic intensity, as well as durability of cement concrete, which is 1.5–3 times higher than durability of asphalt concrete, also prove the effectiveness of this material for road construction.
Conclusions. An overview of the world experience and approaches to the use of cement pavement allow reviewing this material as effective, able for solving the problems of today in the road industry of Ukraine.
