Escalating costs in highway construction present significant challenges for transportation departments and paving contractors. Today’s shifting regulatory and funding priorities—combined with ongoing labor shortages, supply chain disruptions, inflation and volatile material prices—have a substantial influence on project timelines and budgets. To navigate these issues, adopting innovative and efficient strategies is essential for delivering durable and safe infrastructure while maintaining fiscal responsibility.
A primary strategy for managing infrastructure budgets is to focus on preservation early in a pavement's life, rather than complete reconstruction at a later date. Concrete pavement preservation (CPP) is a proven, proactive approach that extends the service life of existing pavements by up to 20 years or more. It maintains roadway performance by improving condition and ride quality, enhancing safety and preserving original design elevations—avoiding drainage and clearance complications that come with asphalt overlays.
By investing in preservation to address pavement distress early, agencies can defer the need for more expensive and disruptive rehabilitation or replacement projects. They can maximize the value of their existing assets and allocate resources more efficiently across their network. Additionally, using digital tools like the International Grooving and Grinding Association’s (IGGA) fuel and carbon savings calculator can help optimize both financial and environmental outcomes.
The CPP toolbox
Concrete pavement preservation encompasses a suite of treatment techniques that restore pavements to a high level of serviceability. These methods are less costly than full reconstruction or traditional overlays, providing substantial savings. CPP procedures also are minimally disruptive. Used to target and repair areas of distress within otherwise structurally sound concrete pavement, they are designed to be performed within small work areas and during off-peak hours.
Diamond grinding is a cornerstone of CPP. This technique involves removing a thin layer from the pavement surface using closely spaced diamond saw blades. The process eliminates surface irregularities, such as faulting, curling and roughness, to create a smooth, level surface that significantly enhances driver safety and comfort. It can be used for both concrete and asphalt pavements.
By restoring a smooth profile, diamond grinding coupled with joint resealing reduces the dynamic loading and impact forces that vehicles exert on the pavement. This lessens stress on the underlying slab, slowing the rate of deterioration and extending the pavement's functional life. A smoother surface also improves drainage, which helps prevent water from penetrating the pavement structure and causing further damage. This preventative action is key to avoiding more extensive and costly repairs in the future.
Diamond grinding also improves skid resistance and reduces the potential for hydroplaning by creating a macrotexture that facilitates water runoff. The resulting corduroy-like texture provides excellent frictional characteristics. Additionally, the reduction in road noise contributes to a better driving experience and lowers noise pollution in surrounding communities.
Safety grooving is another critical CPP technique. This process cuts discrete, longitudinal or transverse channels into the pavement surface to enhance safety in specific locations.
Grooving is particularly effective at preventing hydroplaning on curves, bridge decks and areas prone to water accumulation. The grooves act as channels to quickly carry water away from the tire-pavement interface, maintaining firm contact between the vehicle and the road. This technique is a targeted, cost-effective safety enhancement that can dramatically reduce weather-related incidents. It can also be applied to asphalt pavement.
Partial depth repair (PDR) is a maintenance technique for deterioration that does not fully extend through a concrete slab. This shallow-depth repair method addresses spalling concrete at joints and cracks as well as localized scaling. Spalling can reduce pavement serviceability and become hazardous to highway users. It can be caused by several factors including late sawing, poor joint design and inadequate maintenance. Once initiated, spalls tend to grow under repeated thermal stresses and traffic loads.
The purpose of PDR is to repair surface defects, re-establish joint reservoirs and restore rideability. It replaces unsound concrete in localized areas to discourage further deterioration and has been proven to last more than 20 years when properly constructed with quality materials and workmanship. With the advent of calcium sulfoaluminate cements (CSA), curing time for these patches can take mere hours before opening to traffic.
Dowel bar retrofit (DBR) is a CPP tool that restores load transfer across transverse joints and cracks. It involves installing smooth, steel dowel bars to link adjoining slabs, which prevents differential vertical movement of the slabs at the joints and cracks and prevents the formation of faults or step-offs. When used with other CPP practices like diamond grinding, DBR can return a concrete roadway to a structurally sound, smooth condition that exceeds its original smoothness and noise values.
To perform DBR, slots parallel to the centerline are cut with diamond saw blades, typically three or four per wheel path, centered over the transverse joint or crack. Dowel bar assemblies are placed into cleaned slots, which are then backfilled, patched and diamond ground to provide a safe, smooth and quiet surface.
Cross-stitching and slot-stitching can be used on longitudinal cracks and unreinforced longitudinal joints that are in reasonably good condition. These methods maintain aggregate interlock and provide added reinforcement by using tie bars to inhibit vertical and horizontal movement or widening. Cross-stitching uses deformed tie bars (typically 0.75-inch in diameter) epoxied or grouted into angled holes drilled through a crack or joint. With slot-stitching, the bars are grouted into slots cut across the crack or joint.
Full-depth repair (FDR) involves removing and replacing full-slab thickness sections of severely deteriorated pavement. Patch lengths can vary depending on the particular distress and are typically a full lane wide. FDR can be completed on both jointed and continuously reinforced concrete pavement.
On jointed pavement, the transverse construction joints at the patch ends are typically doweled and/or tied to restore load transfer. For longer patches, dowel bar assemblies are placed at intervals to match the existing joint pattern. On continuously reinforced concrete, the existing steel pattern in the repair section is replaced with new steel. The repair boundaries are first sawed and jackhammered to expose approximately 2 feet of the existing steel to tie the new reinforcement bars. As noted, when constructing a partial depth repair, the use of CSA will significantly reduce curing time—allowing traffic back on the pavement in hours.
Slab stabilization, aka undersealing, involves injecting a flowable material (usually a cementitious grout or urethane) into the voids beneath the pavement. This nondestructive process is most effective on pavements with minimal structural damage and provides both short- and long-term reductions in pavement deflection. The best time to perform this subsurface restoration method is soon after a loss of support becomes evident. Voids can be detected through visual inspections, deflection measurement, ground penetrating radar and core tests.
Joint and crack sealing/resealing (for transverse and longitudinal joints and cracks) reduces water penetration, which improves long-term pavement performance. The method involves using a closed-cell foam backer rod and rigorous preparation of a sealant reservoir—a more robust approach than simple joint filling.
Uncontrolled water ingress contributes to multiple types of pavement distress including spalling; base or subgrade softening; dowel bar corrosion; pavement joint blow-ups and/or materials-related distress. In addition to limiting water entry, joint sealing minimizes the intrusion of incompressible materials into the joint reservoir that exert pressure on the pavement. Resealing previously sealed joints is an important step in any CPP project.
Wheel rut repair treatments address wear patterns that alter a pavement’s surface profile and drainage characteristics, which can lead to unsafe driving conditions. This CPP method involves careful surface preparation followed by the placement of low-shrink, fast-setting, high-strength repair materials like CSA cement mixes designed to bond effectively with the existing concrete while minimizing traffic disruptions. Once repairs are completed, the entire surface is diamond ground to ensure a smooth, safe ride.
Hydroblasting is an effective CPP technique for bridge deck repairs. The high-pressure waterblasting method removes damaged material from decks, which are susceptible to spalling and deterioration. The damaged material is replaced with high-strength and often fiber-reinforced repair materials. Hydroblasting chips away the deteriorated material to the desired depth without damaging the underlying structure. In many cases, engineers choose to hydroblast the entire bridge deck to ensure a uniform surface across the structure.
Spray sealers are designed to penetrate more deeply into the pore structure of concrete, thanks to advancements in chemical technology. Manufacturers report that this enhanced penetration offers improved protection against salt intrusion and increases the overall durability of the concrete surface. In many cases, the increased durability helps slow the progression of moisture-related deterioration, such as ASR and D-cracking. Some sealants provide additional benefits including surface hardening and mitigation of paste spalling.
The Fuel and Carbon Savings Calculator
Digital tools also support more agile project management. For example, real-time supply chain management platforms can track material movement and availability to prevent costly sourcing problems. Similarly, advanced cost-estimation software can capture shifts in labor and material pricing to ensure budgets reflect current market conditions.
A notable tool for pavement projects is the IGGA's Fuel/Carbon Savings Calculator. Pavement smoothness has a direct impact on vehicle fuel efficiency. Rough roads increase rolling resistance, forcing vehicles to consume more fuel and produce higher emissions. The Fuel/Carbon Savings Calculator allows agencies to estimate the potential fuel consumption and CO2 emission reductions resulting from a smoother pavement profile. The tool evaluates savings over 10- and 20-year periods using factors like traffic data, fuel costs and pre- and post-grind smoothness, and it even accounts for carbon sequestration captured via the pavement's reopened porosity.
Users can input project-specific data to quantify the environmental and economic benefits of CPP methods like diamond grinding. The results provide a powerful justification for preservation projects, demonstrating a clear return on investment through reduced fuel costs for road users and a smaller carbon footprint.
Working smarter to control costs
While some market pressures may ease over time, the core drivers of today's high costs are likely to persist. Cost management will remain a primary concern for agencies and paving contractors. For transportation departments focused on maximizing taxpayer investments, CPP is often three to four times more cost-effective than a standard asphalt overlay. By applying preservation treatments at the right time, agencies can significantly reduce the need for major repairs in the future and ensure long-term performance of their concrete assets.
Tools like the Fuel/Carbon Savings Calculator further empower decision-makers by providing the data needed to justify these efficient and sustainable practices. Investing in smarter construction and maintenance strategies ensures our highway networks can continue to support economic growth and connect communities for decades to come.
