Drop Trailers-Concrete Pad Design

[concretefarmer]

What is the general recommendation for size,depth and rebar needed to support loaded semi trailer dollies? I need to support trailers with a maximum weight of 63,000lbs each. Im not sure the exact weight positioned on the dolley legs. I will build the pad width for 6 trailers and may add to in the future.

 

[Ron]

What is the surrounding pavement? Is it not paved? Is there asphalt or gravel?

 

[concretefarmer]

The truck parking lot is gravel,consisting of 6 inches of #2, 3 inches of #53 and 3 inches of #73 stone.

 

[Ron]

If you are located in a frost heave area, you need to make sure the pad will not be susceptible to heaving from the soils below.

As for rebar, you really don't need any as long as you design the pavement section with proper subgrade support. You can use rebar or wire mesh for "temperature steel".

Outside that, the concrete pad (pavement section) would be designed as you would any rigid pavement section, keeping in mind that this will be a long, narrow strip of concrete that will need control joints closely space to mitigate shrinkage cracking.

Either the PCA or AASHTO rigid pavement design procedures can be used. For groundtruthing your design, you will likely have a concrete thickness in the 8 to 10 inch range, presuming good subgrade support.

 

[Terratek]

Unless the whole yard is paved in PCC pavement, it doesn't matter. 8 time out of 10 they will miss the pad when they offload the trailer.

Ron's answer is technically correct, unless you are designing on expansive soils. Then you will need to add rebar.