Assessment, refurbishment and replacement

Expansion joints maintenance

As a specialist contractor in the maintenance of bridge structural components, Freyssinet assists you in inspecting and assessing degraded elements of roadway expansion joints and replacing them in order to restore traffic safety for road or motorway operator and users.

Maintenance of expansion joints may be necessary in several cases:

  • Routine maintenance work as part of a maintenance contract
  • Emergency repair to quickly restore of traffic safety
  • Simultaneous intervention with other carriageway maintenance works, such as resurfacing of road sections
Expansion joints maintenance
Expansion joints maintenance on Monestier viaduct / Copyright: Aline Boros

Expansion joints challenges

A roadway expansion joint in poor condition can lead to hazardous areas for road users, requiring preventive maintenance through periodic inspections and maintenance work without delay as soon as a degraded element is identified. Subjected to heavy truck and intense traffic, harsh climatic conditions and often poor maintenance, the wear rate of expansion joints varies greatly from site to site and is difficult to predict.

Where expansion joint elements are damaged or their fasteners are loose or missing, they must be promptly repaired or replaced to prevent further deterioration of the joint and its substructures.

When concrete chips or gaps form in the concrete carriageway flashing in the vicinity of the joint, they should be repaired as soon as possible as they tend to grow very quickly under the action of traffic and can eventually damage the expansion joint elements.

Scheduled maintenance work, if necessary at night, avoids sudden and disruptive traffic closures and ensures that the road is reopened within a short time.

Expansion joints failure and leakage can lead to increased damage to bridge substructures including steel bearing corrosion as well as concrete spalling in piers and abutments.

Preventive maintenance of roadway expansion joints is vital to maintaining the serviceability and prolonging the life of a bridge.

Expansion joints maintenance

A complete range of services

Assessment

Freyssinet is regularly called upon to carry out preliminary inspections or assessments on various parts of a structure. When simple visual inspections are not sufficient to assess the ageing or damage of a structure, Freyssinet has a wide range of specialised inspection methods available for a more in-depth investigation.

Planning and preparation

With its specialised teams dedicated to the maintenance of structural fittings, Freyssinet is organized to intervene either rapidly for urgent operations to secure one or more defective elements or on a scheduled basis for the replacement of a large width of joints.

Speed and efficiency are the watchwords of a process carried out entirely in-house.

Execution

Freyssinet has specialised teams, equipment specific to this activity and a permanent stock of element from various joint systems.

Freyssinet is able to offer a turnkey solution with the management of all the services necessary for the perfect completion of the work.

Copyright: Aline Boros

Maintenance of expansion joints

Why choose Freyssinet for your project

01. Rapid compliance work to restore user safety

Quick repair thanks to dedicated teams perfectly trained in this activity and a stock of perfectly controlled spare parts and repair products. This enables quick restoration of the carriageway safety.

02. Extending expansion joint service life

Regular inspection and maintenance of structures; regular monitoring of joints in order to avoid dealing with unforeseen emergencies.

03. Lower environmental impact

Improving the environmental impact of structures; replacing only the damaged joint elements.

04. Limited impact on carriageway operations

Preventive maintenance contracts with the asset manager to schedule maintenance at the best time to replace expansion joint elements.

05. Reduction in response times to hazards

Efficient planning of the repair operations in coordination with our Clients for tailor-made intervention.

06. High durability of the repair

Freyssinet designs and manufactures all the expansion joint elements it supplies. This gives us control over their procurement as well as their quality.

Discover our references

Build
United Kingdom

St George’s Bridge expansion joint replacement

After more than 10 years of service, an assessment by Doncaster Council indicated that carriageway refurbishment and essential safety repairs were required for expansion joint replacement.
Repair
UK

Cromarty bridge renovation

Tidal conditions and traffic management were the key constraints that had to be addressed by the team responsible for carrying out repairs to this critical network connection.
Repair
USA

Montgomery College Carpark

After one of the post-tensioned floors in a multi-storey car park in Takoma Park sagged without warning, repairs had to be rapidly executed with minimum impact on the garage users.

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