Cause and control of cracking in reinforced concrete highway bridge deck: a case study in bonga town, sheta river bridge deck

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.