Despite adopting good construction techniques and quality control measures, many

kind of premature distresses have been observed in these newly constructed concrete
pavements.

The most common distresses have been observed in the form of full depth transverse
and longitudinal cracking, settlement cracking, corner cracking, cracks over dowel
bars, cracks over slab culverts, and blow ups etc. These distresses do indicate the
failure of concrete slabs but more than that they indicate the human failure to
understand the few basic and fundamental things related to concrete material and
pavement.

 Any negligence during the construction process may lead to premature distresses in
concrete pavement slabs. These distresses may appear in the form of uncontrolled
cracking, plastic shrinkage cracking, settlement cracking mainly over pipe culverts
and near slab culverts, popouts, crack over dowel bars etc.

All kinds of distresses observed in concrete pavements happen due to some specific
reason associated with the behavior of either concrete as a material or concrete
pavement slab as a structure.

Sometimes, it is very confusing and difficult to ascertain the correct cause of a

particular kind of distress but it is possible to find it out by carrying out an
investigation coupled with proper understanding of concrete pavement response to
environmental and traffic loadings. In any case, it is very essential to fix the cause of
distress before selecting the most suitable repair methodology.