Treatments against Longitudinal Cracks on Cement Concrete Pavements

This paper is a summary of the strategies employed to treat the longitudinal cracks in several pavement maintenance projects in Hunan and Guangdong and lessons drawn from the process of treatment. Once the longitudinal cracks appear, the first step was to observe these cracks so as to understand their developing tendencies and to assess the existence of void under pavement slabs. In the case of the pavement with voids under slab, grouting was needed to stabilize the slab first. Subsequently, according to various developing tendencies of cracks, feasible strategy options would be selected, including crack sealing or filling to minimize water infiltration, load transfer restoration, isolation treatment to prevent the cracks from propagating, etc. Among these strategies, sawing isolation cuts to prevent cracks from propagating seemed to be a novelty. Furthermore, to each option of strategies, lessons drawn from the field projects are provided for reference to the future cement concrete pavement maintenance to ensure the effectiveness of treatment.