A Case Study of Slab Cracking and Delamination in BCO Construction at the Bush International Airport (IAH) Part I: Impact on Service Life

Bonded Concrete Overlay (BCO) construction at the Bush International Airport (IAH) has been subjected to incidences of cracking and delamination that is speculated to be mainly climatically driven due the extremely dry and windy weather conditions prevalent throughout most of the construction period. An investigation was under taken to determine the strength of the bond between the overlay and existing pavement as well as the structural integrity of the constructed pavement section to determine effects on project pavement service life. This paper reports the details of the investigation and the findings from the analysis of them relative to the impact on the service life.