İnvestigation of the strength and crack formation of concrete pavement roads in rural areas of Trabzon province

The construction of concrete roads, which have not had the opportunity to be produced as seriously as asphalt roads in our country, has recently gained some momentum in rural areas. This development has provided us with an opportunity to better understand concrete roads, especially in the challenging Black Sea climate and geography. The fact that concrete roads have not yet had the opportunity to participate in the highway network in the desired way causes concrete roads to lag behind both technically and in terms of the development and specialization of the sector in the concrete road quality control network. In this study, core samples were taken from the village roads in Trabzon Province, whose rigid superstructure was completed and approximately 4 - 5 years have elapsed since the completion of the pavement, to perform various experiments, and the strength of the roads were investigated by examining the cracks and deterioration that occurred on the roads. As a method, 8 core samples were taken from the roads, the initial conditions of the roads with concrete pavements, the types of cracks formed over time were determined, density determination was made on the samples, capillary water absorption values were examined, compressive strength test results were compared with the fresh sample results taken during casting, and the tensile strength results at splitting were also taken into consideration and the routes were evaluated both within themselves and compared with each other, including the conditions of the cracks and the current conditions of the concrete pavements were interpreted. This study has revealed that concrete road applications in rural areas are highly affected by environmental variables, which are slightly different from the technical problems such as material, quality, control and maintenance that can be encountered in a normal concrete road application. In particular, variable road widths, narrowness in some sections, lack of foundation and sub-base in necessary sections, lack of drainage ditches or lack of maintenance in this geography rich in ground water, lack of alternative roads in terms of transportation, and the risk of early exposure to traffic were found to be the main problems, and it was determined that concrete roads in this region were most exposed to drying shrinkage.