Investigation of dowel bar placement accuracy with a dowel bar inserter

mmp. kaPDFResearch PaperRDT 03-009Dowels (Fasteners)ConcretePavement jointsMissouriMissouri. Dept. of TransportationMissouri. Dept. of TransportationNTL-HIGHWAY/ROAD TRANSPORTATION-Pavement Management and PerformanceUS Transportation CollectionDowel bar inserters (DBI) on concrete paving equipment eliminate the need for manually placing dowel bar baskets. Reduced manual labor eventually pays off the initial investment in a DBI and ultimately results in reduced PCCP costs to the roadway owner. The purpose of this investigation was to compare the dowel bar placement accuracy of a DBI with the performance of conventional dowel baskets. Ground penetrating radar (GPR) was used to measure dowel bar skew, translation, and depth at specific joint locations on a US 60 jointed plain concrete pavement (JPCP) construction project near Van Buren. The general conclusion of the investigation was that the Gunter-Zimmerman DBI provides similar dowel bar placement accuracy to dowel baskets. 4 Appendices, 39 p