Wyoming/Utah Highways 2

[GoldDredger]

Was on vacation the other day and driving on the highways I noticed something I'd never seen before.

There are what appear to be longitudinal grind marks in between transverse concrete joints. The grind marks are about 2-inches wide, perhaps 2-feet long and cross the joint. They were spaced in increments of 3, perhaps 1-foot apart. (two sets per lane).

They looked something like this, imagine the horizontal line is the joint, and the exclamation point is the 'grind' mark, which crosses the joint above and below.


____!!!____!!!____!!!____________________!!!____!!!____!!!________


Anyone know what those are for? I figured they must have something to do with winter or ice/snow conditions.

 

[BigInch]

I think they are three-toed sloths, two small ones on each side of a big mother.

"People will work for you with blood and sweat and tears if they work for what they believe in......" - Simon Sinek

 

[dicksewerrat]

They may have replaced some of the dowels used to transfer loads.

Richard A. Cornelius, P.E.

http://WWW.amlinereast.com

 

[Hoaokapohaku]

Those are dowel bar retrofits. This is most often done on older concrete pavements that as originally designed, had no joints except the ones created at the cracks. Those pavements rely on aggregate interlock at the cracks to provide for load transfer. It is also used for pavements that originally had no provision for load transfer. Eventually, the aggregate wears, the interlock is lost, and there is no longer any load transfer. After dowel bar retrofits, often the pavement is diamond ground and grooved to produce an ultra smooth and quiet pavement.

 

[Hoaokapohaku]

A excellent reference can be found at

http://www.wsdot.wa.gov/research/reports/fullreports/576.2.pdf.

 

[GoldDredger]

Thanks for the response, the dowel bar retrofit is exactly what I was seeing.