Replies

Yes that seems odd to weaken the design.

If I had to guess, that detail was a last minute accommodation to allow slab placement to happen directly on the rock in certain cases.

2,164 posted on 03/02/2017 1:05:05 PM PST by KC Burke (If all the world is a stage, I would like to request my lighting be adjusted.)

Let me opine this: A 15” slab is considerably robust. Interstate paving that I’ve had experience with is but 13”, IIRC. With no reinforcing, save the dowel bars. That particular pavement has been in service for over 30 years, and has held up well.

But let the subgrade deteriorate from water infiltration at the joints, it doesn’t hold up at all.

I have to believe a subgrade failure/washout was the beginning of this event. All the other conditions - cracks, hydraulic jacking, cavitation just exacerbated the failure.

2,165 posted on 03/02/2017 2:07:48 PM PST by abb ("News reporting is too important to be left to the journalists." Walter Abbott (1950 -))