Advancing Concrete Pavement Rehabilitation and Strategic Management Through Nondestructive Testing at Toll Stations

In contrast to maintaining asphalt pavements, maintaining healthy and functional concrete pavements is a much greater challenge due to the especially brittle nature of concrete, which may require a more complex rehabilitation plan. Thanks to nondestructive testing, noninvasive on-site inspections ca...

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Main Authors: Konstantinos Gkyrtis, Christina Plati, Andreas Loizos
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: MDPI AG 2025-05-01
Series:Applied Sciences
Subjects:
Online Access:https://www.mdpi.com/2076-3417/15/10/5304
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author Konstantinos Gkyrtis
Christina Plati
Andreas Loizos
author_facet Konstantinos Gkyrtis
Christina Plati
Andreas Loizos
author_sort Konstantinos Gkyrtis
collection DOAJ
description In contrast to maintaining asphalt pavements, maintaining healthy and functional concrete pavements is a much greater challenge due to the especially brittle nature of concrete, which may require a more complex rehabilitation plan. Thanks to nondestructive testing, noninvasive on-site inspections can be carried out to assess a pavement’s condition, with the falling weight deflectometer (FWD) being the most representative example. In this study, five toll stations with concrete pavements in operation, for which no long-term monitoring protocols existed yet, were evaluated mainly with deflectometric tests using the FWD. The objective of the study was to propose a methodological framework to support responsible decision-makers in the strategic management of concrete pavements at toll stations. To meet this aim, a test campaign was organized to evaluate the pavement condition of individual slabs or lanes, assess the durability of the slabs, and determine the efficiency of load transfer across joints and cracks. As a key finding, pavement slab deflections were found to exhibit a considerable range; in particular, a range of 50–1450 μm for the maximum deflection of the FWD was observed. This finding stimulated a distribution fitting analysis to estimate characteristic values and thresholds for common deflection indicators that were validated on the basis of pavement design input data. Finally, the study proceeded with the development of a conceptual approach proposing evaluation criteria for individual slab assessment and the condition mapping of in-service concrete pavements.
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spelling doaj-art-ba80ecb8874a4e9caaa8118a7d248d712025-08-20T03:47:53ZengMDPI AGApplied Sciences2076-34172025-05-011510530410.3390/app15105304Advancing Concrete Pavement Rehabilitation and Strategic Management Through Nondestructive Testing at Toll StationsKonstantinos Gkyrtis0Christina Plati1Andreas Loizos2Department of Civil Engineering, Democritus University of Thrace (DUTh), 67100 Xanthi, GreeceLaboratory of Pavement Engineering, National Technical University of Athens (NTUA), 15772 Athens, GreeceLaboratory of Pavement Engineering, National Technical University of Athens (NTUA), 15772 Athens, GreeceIn contrast to maintaining asphalt pavements, maintaining healthy and functional concrete pavements is a much greater challenge due to the especially brittle nature of concrete, which may require a more complex rehabilitation plan. Thanks to nondestructive testing, noninvasive on-site inspections can be carried out to assess a pavement’s condition, with the falling weight deflectometer (FWD) being the most representative example. In this study, five toll stations with concrete pavements in operation, for which no long-term monitoring protocols existed yet, were evaluated mainly with deflectometric tests using the FWD. The objective of the study was to propose a methodological framework to support responsible decision-makers in the strategic management of concrete pavements at toll stations. To meet this aim, a test campaign was organized to evaluate the pavement condition of individual slabs or lanes, assess the durability of the slabs, and determine the efficiency of load transfer across joints and cracks. As a key finding, pavement slab deflections were found to exhibit a considerable range; in particular, a range of 50–1450 μm for the maximum deflection of the FWD was observed. This finding stimulated a distribution fitting analysis to estimate characteristic values and thresholds for common deflection indicators that were validated on the basis of pavement design input data. Finally, the study proceeded with the development of a conceptual approach proposing evaluation criteria for individual slab assessment and the condition mapping of in-service concrete pavements.https://www.mdpi.com/2076-3417/15/10/5304concrete pavementsFWD testingdeflectometric indicatorsload transfer efficiencydurabilitycondition ranking
spellingShingle Konstantinos Gkyrtis
Christina Plati
Andreas Loizos
Advancing Concrete Pavement Rehabilitation and Strategic Management Through Nondestructive Testing at Toll Stations
Applied Sciences
concrete pavements
FWD testing
deflectometric indicators
load transfer efficiency
durability
condition ranking
title Advancing Concrete Pavement Rehabilitation and Strategic Management Through Nondestructive Testing at Toll Stations
title_full Advancing Concrete Pavement Rehabilitation and Strategic Management Through Nondestructive Testing at Toll Stations
title_fullStr Advancing Concrete Pavement Rehabilitation and Strategic Management Through Nondestructive Testing at Toll Stations
title_full_unstemmed Advancing Concrete Pavement Rehabilitation and Strategic Management Through Nondestructive Testing at Toll Stations
title_short Advancing Concrete Pavement Rehabilitation and Strategic Management Through Nondestructive Testing at Toll Stations
title_sort advancing concrete pavement rehabilitation and strategic management through nondestructive testing at toll stations
topic concrete pavements
FWD testing
deflectometric indicators
load transfer efficiency
durability
condition ranking
url https://www.mdpi.com/2076-3417/15/10/5304
work_keys_str_mv AT konstantinosgkyrtis advancingconcretepavementrehabilitationandstrategicmanagementthroughnondestructivetestingattollstations
AT christinaplati advancingconcretepavementrehabilitationandstrategicmanagementthroughnondestructivetestingattollstations
AT andreasloizos advancingconcretepavementrehabilitationandstrategicmanagementthroughnondestructivetestingattollstations