Abstract:
Cracking in concrete bridge deck is widely regarded as a long–term durability and
maintenance problem that requires attention. Once a crack has developed in a bridge
deck create a path for water and de-icing salts to reach the steel, often leading to
corrosion of the reinforcement, greatly reducing the service life of the bridge deck. The
focus of this study was to investigate the causes of cracking in reinforced concrete
highway bridge deck related to transverse deck cracking. This study selected a single–
span RC deck girder bridge crossing Sheta River with a service life of 50 years, located
at Kaffa Zone, Bonga town. The study used both primary and secondary data. The
primary data was collected from in place non–destructive tests in conjunction with
completing visual bridge inspection formats. The secondary data was collected from
ERA previous inspection & inventory reports and data on similarly constructed RC
deck girder bridge (Bitino River Bridge). ACI 209R–92 model and ASHTO–2011
second edition manual for bridge evaluation were used to analyze the collected data to
measure predicted compressive strength at any time and performance evaluation of
Sheta River Bridge deck, respectively.
The study finding revealed that the major causes of Sheta River Bridge deck cracking
are environment & site conditions, materials properties, structural design parameters,
excessive traffic overloading and age of the bridge. The finding of this study also shows
that the structural conditions of the bridge are at reasonably good condition and almost
all manifested cracking in Sheta River Bridge deck are non-structural cracks. Therefore,
the researcher recommends that concerned body shall use gravity filling crack repair
mechanism with association of lower viscosity gravity feed product and strengthen a
girder of the bridge solutions in order to prolonging the span life of Sheta River Bridge
deck.
