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Publication Details

Highway Concrete Pavement Technology Development and Testing Volume II:Field Evaluation of Strategic Highway Research Program (SHRP) C-203 Test Sites (Freeze-Thaw Resistance) 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: Materials-Concrete

Description: Field test sections were constructed during 1992 as part of the Strategic Highway Research Program (SHRP) investigation of the frost resistance of concrete. The first freeze-thaw-related deterioration expected for pavement concrete exposed to de-icing salt would be salt scaling. Unfortunately, the test sections constructed in Ohio were diamond-ground between construction and the first visit of the monitoring team. The diamond-ground surface did not deteriorate over time. Internal deterioration of the Ohio test sections was either not detected or was believed to be caused by a mechanism other than freeze-thaw. Freeze-thaw deterioration was not noticed, either, in the Minnesota test sections (not exposed to deicing salts), though freeze-thaw tests conducted on specimens cut from the test sections 6 years after construction showed significantly different performance than specimens prepared and tested at the time of test section construction. For both the Ohio and Minnesota test sections, only 6 years of witer exposure would not be adequate to evaluate potential long-term performance thoroughly. Though the Ohio sections have been overlaid, making further monitoring impossible, the Minnesota sections are still exposed. Additional monitoring of these sections is recommended, along with providing salt exposure to the sections to determine their resistance to salt scaling. The D-cracking mitigation study indicated that in many cases the D-cracking returned after 6 years, independent of the mitigation technique tried. Additional testing would be required to make further evaluations.

FHWA Publication Number: FHWA-RD-02-083

Publication Year: 2006

Document Links: HTML  PDF (file size: 2 mb)



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Updated: 04/11/2022
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