The Effectiveness and Efficiency of Implementing Fast Set Concrete in Reparation and Reinstatement of Concrete Pavements

The three components of project management triangle are time, cost, and quality. Every party involved in the construction projects strives to balance these components. In some operational areas like airports, ports, bus depots, and other cargo areas, time is the critical factor because many of these areas could not afford to have long period of downtime for construction works. The aim of this research is to determine the advantages of fast set concrete in reparation and reinstatement works in terms of time, cost, and quality. In this study, rapid setting patch cement was used to produce fast set concrete. Despite fast set concrete may not be the newest technology in construction industry, the recommended thickness of fast set concrete is limited up to 75 mm only. With the persistence of our research engineers and assistance from our suppliers, we made a breakthrough by manipulating the design mix and allow the fast set concrete to remain its optimum performance with thickness up to 400 mm. This design mix ratio was applied to a fast set concrete project in Singapore Changi Airport and the project was successfully completed with minimal disruption to airport operations. In terms of quality and time, the fast set concrete could achieve initial compressive strength more than 40 MPa at 3 hours and the strength was increasing gradually with time. The reconstruction works were completed during midnights or off-peak closures and caused zero downtime to Changi Airport operations. In the aspect of cost, despite the material cost of fast set concrete is relatively higher than conventional concretes, the overall cost of the construction work of fast set concrete is lower than conventional concretes as it eliminated the downtime and disruptions to the operation areas.