National Concrete Pavement Technology Center

Project description

Recent concerns of misaligned dowel bars led to a technical assistance project to investigate the roadways in question using a MIT-SCAN-2 device borrowed from the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA). The device worked extremely well, and the Louisiana Department of Transportation and Development (DOTD) is considering its use in quality control and assurance. Dowel bar alignment has rarely been questioned in Louisiana due to the inability to check and because dowel related issues have not materialized, so new guidelines for dowel bar placement alignment and testing need to be developed. Such guidelines should consider the minimum alignment requirements to mitigate premature pavement failure due to load transfer or faulting because of the misaligned dowel bars. The objective of this research is to utilize the MIT-SCAN-2 as a non-destructive dowel bar alignment measuring device to determine the effect of dowel bar alignment and its effects on jointed concrete pavement performance. Five to seven jointed concrete pavements of each of these ages will be measured at 0-10 years, 10-20 years, and 20+ years of age to determine the effects of dowel bar misalignment on pavement performance indicators such as faulting and load transfer.