Maintenance and Rehabilitation of Concrete Roads

For the repair of concrete roads to be effective and economic it is essential to have planned maintenance procedure. Details of such a procedure are to be published in the forthcoming publication "Manual for the Maintenance and Repair of Concrete Roads" ,which is to be adopted for roads administered by the Department of Transport. An essential part of this procedure is to carry out regular inspections and to record the information collected. To find faults in concrete sLabs some form of visual inspection is necessary as a majority at the faults are mainly small and localised at the joints. By comparing successive recordings of defects the rate of deterioration can be determined and thus a history of fault development is obained. A careful study of the faults together with construction details will help to diagnose their cause and lead to the most effective type of repair. The manual gives recommendations on the frequency of inspection and methods of recording information along with detailed guidance on the means of identifying faults and carrying out effective repairs with appropriate materials. Recommandations on the various methods of rehabilitising and refurbishing concrete slabs are detailed together with those for partial and full reconstruction and overlays of existing pavements. The Manual also describes specific methods of repair, including their Specification, to assist in the preparation of contract documents. The paper summarises the most important aspects of the l~anual.