What are all the notches cut on the highways?

[nathanm]

As others stated, it's reinforcement at the expansion joints so that the individual slabs of concrete don't rock back and forth as vehicles drive over them or get displaced like several of the concrete intersections in our fair city have.

They cut out these slots, then drop some segments of rebar in, pour concrete in the holes, then grind down the entire road surface to make it smooth.

Essentially, it's to prevent what happened on I-40 in Arkansas. Arkansas let it get so bad they had to replace large sections of the roadway all the way down to dirt.

There is a downside, though, when it's done on older pavement, like 412 east between the Creek and the river. The brittle pavement develops cracks and potholes at the joints between lanes at an incredible rate. On newer pavement, like the Cherokee turnpike (or 169) that's not an issue.

If ODOT wasn't so cheap, they would have used the normal practice of putting a few inches of asphalt down on top of the new concrete surface to prevent the ancient concrete from breaking down so much. Granted, then they'd have to mill the surface and lay down another coat of asphalt every 5 or 10 years, but that's a lot cheaper and faster than this concrete process or replacing the whole road, which is what they'll end up doing on 412 before too long.

[custosnox]

I have a dream.  A dream of a day when all roads are created in a logical fashion to withstand years of traffic and weather.  Roads that have been built with the technilogical knowhow of a society that can create a satallite that can read a book over your should from space, and a car that drives 800 miles at 90mph on compressed air.  We have the technology to rebuild it. We can make it stronger, faster.... Okay, I'll stop now

[Wilbur]

quote:Originally posted by custosnox

I have a dream.  A dream of a day when all roads are created in a logical fashion to withstand years of traffic and weather.  Roads that have been built with the technilogical knowhow of a society that can create a satallite that can read a book over your should from space, and a car that drives 800 miles at 90mph on compressed air.  We have the technology to rebuild it. We can make it stronger, faster.... Okay, I'll stop now

We'll all be on space cycles by then.