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Title:

Dowel Misalignment and Joint Lock-up: A Field Investigation

Accession Number:

01151095

Record Type:

Component

Availability:

Transportation Research Board Business Office

500 Fifth Street, NW
Washington, DC 20001 United States

Abstract:

This paper presents the results of a field investigation performed to determine the impact of dowel misalignment on joint movements and potential for joint lockup on a section of a newly constructed concrete pavement in Florida. This section of the pavement, built under a design-build (D-B) contract, exhibited various types and degrees of dowel misalignment as determined by the MIT Scan device. Some of the joints in this pavement section exhibited dowel misalignments that were over Florida Department of Transportation’s (FDOT’s) specification limits. Lacking a widely accepted rejection criteria, the joint score methodology published by the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) was used to identify joints that were considered problematic. Joint scores were computed for each of the joints as indicated in the procedure. The scores generally ranged from 1 to 40 with a joint score of 1 indicating a perfectly aligned joint and 40 indicating a joint with a high degree of misalignment in multiple bars. The rejection criteria were initially planned to be based on the Joint Scores, however, based on a meeting between the owner, the designer, and the builder, it was decided that a novel approach to arriving at the criteria based on a direct measurement of the joint movements in the field was decided to be followed. This approach included measuring movements of joints with severely misaligned dowels and well-aligned dowels over a 48-hour period. The resulting data showed unexpected but conclusive evidence that suggested that more work needs to be done in establishing rejection criteria and corrective actions when dowel misalignment is detected in the field.

Monograph Accession #:

01147878

Report/Paper Numbers:

10-4072

Language:

English

Corporate Authors:

Transportation Research Board

500 Fifth Street, NW
Washington, DC 20001 United States

Authors:

Mallela, Jagannath
Rao, Shreenath
Littleton, Paul
Schmitt Sr, Roger C

Pagination:

14p

Publication Date:

2010

Conference:

Transportation Research Board 89th Annual Meeting

Location: Washington DC, United States
Date: 2010-1-10 to 2010-1-14
Sponsors: Transportation Research Board

Media Type:

DVD

Features:

Figures (3) ; References; Tables (2)

Uncontrolled Terms:

Geographic Terms:

Subject Areas:

Construction; Highways; I52: Construction of Pavements and Surfacings

Source Data:

Transportation Research Board Annual Meeting 2010 Paper #10-4072

Files:

TRIS, TRB

Created Date:

Jan 25 2010 12:06PM