In the spring of 2016, MDT noted severe cracking on two bridge decks in the Missoula District which led to holes in these decks after small sections of concrete fell through. MDT hired Wiss, Janney, Elstner and Associates (WJE) to investigate the cause of these cracks and provide recommendations. The report by WJE was published in April 2017 and some, but not all, of the recommendations were implemented and proved successful in reducing early age cracking in new bridge decks. Although MDT had success with implementation, documentation of actual in-field procedures was not sufficient and there was not a clear understanding of which of the recommendations implemented were causing the success. The purpose of this project is to determine a better way to document in-field procedures and specification enforcement as well as identifying which recommendations are the main cause of the success and which ones may not be proving beneficial.

WJE Investigation of Bridge Decks Report

Reports

Final Report
Final Presentation
Project Summary Report
Implementation Report