Articles Crack & Seat Airports
Aug 6, 2025
When culling old documents from file cabinets, one sometimes discovers reminders of past accomplishments that bring back good memories. Antigo Construction performed crack & seat of Runway 5/23 at Columbus Airport (IN) in 1988. The project was unique in that the 8-inch-thick concrete pavement was cracked and seated without first removing the existing 6-inch- to 2-inch-thick asphalt overlay. Nondestructive tests (now known as falling weight deflectometer) were performed to measure the elastic moduli of the concrete layer before and after cracking and seating. The testing confirmed effective cracking and seating of the concrete layer. This article from 37 years ago reminds us that though much has changed in the construction of pavements, the basic concepts of fracturing concrete pavements prior to an asphalt overlay still apply today.
