Investigation of Factors Affecting Distresses on Continuously Reinforced Concrete Pavement using Ground Penetrating Radar

The utilization of continuously reinforced concrete pavement (CRCP) has been widely used throughout the United States during the construction of interstate highways since the 1930s. The essential design criterion of CRCP is to manage the crack type, size, and spacing that forms to reduce the distress; thus, identification of the factors affecting the location and extent of the cracks and distresses provides a prediction for the service life of CRCP pavements. In this paper, the influence that reinforcement placement and concrete cover has on the distresses of CRCPs is investigated using ground penetrating radar (GPR) and eddy current technology at six major interstate and state highway locations in Georgia. It was concluded that pavement having inefficient concrete cover depth and pavement thickness results in increased clusters of single transverse cracks and/or punchouts. A result of this study is the recommendation that longitudinal reinforcement be placed at one-third of the depth of the slab from the top surface of the pavement. Furthermore, a distress factor (DF) was established as a good indicator of the performances of pavements relative to each other. Ideal pavement with no crack acquires a DF of 0. In this study, pavements in good, fair, and poor conditions received DFs of “0.03 and 0.05,” “0.97 and 0.98,” and “3.23 and 3.33,” respectively.