Evaluation of Trapezoidal Shaped Grooves

Figure 9. Standard (Left) and Trapezoidal (Right) Grooves Side by Side CONSTRUCTION PROCESS. One of the objectives of the project was to compare the construction methods, resources, and requirements between the trapezoidal-shaped and the standard grooves. With the grooving operation at the NAPTF, project personnel were unable to identify any differences in the construction process. In fact, both sets of grooves were installed with the same machine and labor effort. The blade mechanism was the only difference between the process of cutting standard grooves and trapezoidal-shaped grooves. A bridge-deck groove- cutting machine was used for this operation, as shown in figure 10. This was because for this particular project, there was limited space at the end of each groove lane for use of a larger runway-scale groove-cutting machine. The bridge-deck groove-cutting machine is typically used for bridge-decks and locations that offer limited maneuverability. On a typical runway groove installation, a much larger machine would be used.

14