UNSEALED JOINTED CONCRETE PAVEMENTS (02-2394) by

Based on a number of pavement sealant research projects conducted in Wisconsin during the last several decades, and on the early experiences of some other transportation agencies, maintenance engineers of the Wisconsin Department of Transportation have come to believe that sealing of contraction joints of jointed concrete pavements is unnecessary. They believe even more. They claim that with respect to ride quality and total pavement performance, the performance of unsealed pavements is superior to that of sealed pavements. And they estimate “that Wisconsin saves $6,000,000 a year by not trying to have a sealed system. ” (1) In local and national forums, they suggested that similar savings await other states that in effect see the light and abandon the lost cause of pavement sealing. Finally, they challenged other professionals to prove them wrong. Generally, when claims such as these are made by research individuals, claims that contradict the observations of their professional colleagues and their predecessors of the last several generations, they are usually dismissed as the result of bad science or faulty logic. But when such claims are made by experienced professionals from respected professional organizations, they cannot be so easily dismissed. Consequently, this paper was developed to examine the case for and against the use of unsealed jointed concrete pavements, with a primary focus on the performance of Wisconsin test-pavements as described and discussed in recent papers on the subject. I