Tolerances for Placement of Tie Bars in Portland Cement Concrete Pavements

Tie bars provide load transfer along longitudinal joints and prevent lane separation in jointed concrete pavements. Tie bars are normally located within the middle third of the pavement thickness and span the longitudinal joint of two slabs. Tie bars are placed by staking or by using tie bar baskets prior to the placement of the concrete or during paving via automatic inserters. Inspection of South Dakota pavements after construction using ground penetrating radar (GPR) has revealed that many bars were misaligned or missing. More bars were reported missing or misaligned when automatic inserters were used. Many states, including South Dakota, have banned the use of automatic inserters based on a lack of confidence regarding the placement of tie bars. The long-term effect on the pavement from misaligned or missing bars is unknown, but it can be assumed that additional maintenance costs and reduced pavement life are both possible.

• Record URL:
  https://www.mountain-plains.org/research/details.php?id=330
• 

Language

• English

Project

• Status: Active
• Funding: $150000
• Contract Numbers:

  DTRT12-G-UTC08

• Sponsor Organizations:

  Research and Innovative Technology Administration

  University Transportation Centers Program
  1200 New Jersey Avenue
  Washington, DC  United States  20590

  Federal Highway Administration

  Office of Natural Environment, 1200 New Jersey Avenue, SE
  Washington, DC  United States  20590
• Project Managers:

  Kline, Robin

• Performing Organizations:

  South Dakota State University, Brookings

  Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering
  Brookings, SD  United States  57007
• Principal Investigators:

  Wehbe, Nadim

• Start Date: 20120101
• Expected Completion Date: 0
• Actual Completion Date: 20161231
• Source Data: MPC-440

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Concrete pavements; Ground penetrating radar; Longitudinal joints; Portland cement concrete; Service life; Tie bars
• Uncontrolled Terms: Misalignments
• Geographic Terms: South Dakota
• Subject Areas: Design; Highways; Pavements;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01497112
• Record Type: Research project
• Source Agency: Mountain-Plains Consortium
• Contract Numbers: DTRT12-G-UTC08
• Files: UTC, RiP
• Created Date: Oct 30 2013 1:00AM