Premature Distresses in Concrete Pavements: Causes and Repair
Binod Kumar, Scientist, and Dr. Renu Mathur, Head, Rigid Pavements Division, CRRI, New Delhi
Hundreds of kilometers of concrete pavements are being constructed in the country under National Highway Development Programme (NHDP). Some of the concrete pavements have already been opened to traffic while some others are due to be completed soon. The construction of these concrete pavements in different parts of the country has been carried out by the best available construction agencies using most modern construction equipment, the best possible materials, and under the supervision of various national and international consultants and experts. Despite adopting good construction techniques and quality control measures, many kind of premature distresses have been observed in these newly constructed concrete pavements. The most common distresses have been observed in the form of full depth transverse and longitudinal cracking, settlement cracking, corner cracking, cracks over dowel bars, cracks over slab culverts, and blow ups etc. These distresses do indicate the failure of concrete slabs but more than that they indicate the human failure to understand the few basic and fundamental things related to concrete material and pavement. It is the ignorance and negligence on the part of those associated with the construction of concrete pavements that most of the time leads to the occurrence of such premature distresses. This paper discusses the different kinds of distresses that have been observed on newly constructed concrete pavement slabs under different projects. The causes of distresses and repair techniques that have been adopted at some of the projects have also been discussed.
