ABSTRACT

Well-built concrete pavements generally require less maintenance than asphalt pavements under similar traffic and environmental conditions, but they are rarely maintenance free. Timely maintenance helps preserve the pavement investment and generally extends the time until more costly rehabilitation or reconstruction strategies are necessary. One important consideration is that the pavement condition will deteriorate between the time the decision is made to apply the maintenance and the time that the maintenance is performed, as shown in Figure 16.1. Many of the concrete pavement distresses, as well as the maintenance

strategies that may be used to address them, have been discussed in Chapter 3. Joints and cracks may need to be sealed or resealed. Proper maintenance will also prevent blowups by keeping incompressible materials out of joints. Expansion joints must be able to expand freely without building up stress. Spalls and other small areas of surface deterioration require patches. Lane-to-shoulder dropoff and lane-to-shoulder separation generally occur

with shoulders made of asphalt or aggregate. The shoulders may be maintained or replaced, and any joints that open between the shoulder and main line pavement may be sealed. In one instance, the State of Georgia used RCC to replace deteriorated asphalt shoulders on the heavily traveled Interstate 285 around Atlanta (Bacon 2005). This technique shows promise for heavy duty pavements where shoulder maintenance is costly as well as disruptive to traffic. Different agencies may define different repair techniques as either mainte-

nance or rehabilitation, based on the circumstances and on agency practices. Arguably, partial depth patching, discussed in Chapter 17, may also be considered a maintenance technique. It is important to carefully prepare distressed areas to ensure good bond between the patch and the existing pavement, and thus a durable patch. Some agencies use asphalt as a patching material for concrete – asphalt is fast and cheap, but these patches generally do not last long and should be replaced with proper partial depth patches as soon as possible.