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Publication Details

LTPP Pavement Maintenance Materials: SPS-4 Supplemental Joint Seal Experiment, Final Report Research/Reference: useful for researchers doing further work in the pavement area as well as those developing improved testing and design procedures. Includes documents of historical value.

Primary Topic: Pavement Maintenance

Description: The Strategic Highway Research Program (SHRP) Specific Pavement Studies (SPS)-4 preventive maintenance experiment was established to determine the benefits and cost-effectiveness of concrete maintenance activities, such as joint sealing and slab undersealing. Since 1989, several test sites have been constructed throughout the United States for this purpose.

A secondary investigation at some of these SPS-4 sites has focused on the long-term effectiveness of various joint seal treatments (i.e., combinations of sealant material and installation method) at preventing the infiltration of water into the pavement structure. Referred to as supplemental joint seal sites, a total of six such sites were constructed adjacent to SPS-4 test sites, and the performance of the various joint seal treatments have been monitored under the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) Long-Term Monitoring (LTM) of Pavement Maintenance Materials Test Sites project.

This report documents the entire SPS-4 supplemental joint seal study, including the installation of 29 unique joint seal treatments, the laboratory testing of experimental sealant materials, and the multi-year performance monitoring of the various joint seal treatments. It also discusses the results of comprehensive statistical analyses conducted on sealant material performance.

FHWA Publication Number: FHWA-RD-99-151

Publication Year: 1999

Document Links: HTML  PDF (file size: 44 mb)



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Updated: 04/11/2022
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