A rigid pavement structure is composed of a hydraulic cement concrete surface course and underlying base and subbase courses (if used). Another term commonly used is Portland cement concrete (PCC) pavement, although with today’s pozzolanic additives, cements may no longer be technically classified as “Portland.”

The surface course (concrete slab) is the stiffest layer and provides the majority of strength. The base or subbase layers are orders of magnitude less stiff than the PCC surface but still make important contributions to uniformity of support, pavement drainage, and frost protection, and provide a working platform for construction equipment.

Rigid pavements are substantially ‘stiffer’ than flexible pavements due to the high modulus of elasticity of the PCC material, resulting in very low deflections under loading. The rigid pavements can be analyzed by the plate theory. Rigid pavements can have reinforcing steel, which is generally used to handle thermal stresses to reduce or eliminate joints and maintain tight crack widths. Figure 2-4 shows a typical section for a rigid pavement.