Abstract
The details of an approach to account for the factors that have been found to affect the ability and the probability to control cracking due to sawcutting in newly constructed concrete pavements are presented. Several factors such as material strength parameters, method and quality of curing, slab and subbase stiffness, and concrete shrinkage affect the probability of crack initiation. Others are relevant to concrete mixture characteristics that affect development of early aged stresses caused by shrinkage and thermally induced contraction. This paper presents the results of a probabilistic analysis of the factors that affect crack control using sawcut notches. Cost analyses on both conventional and early-entry sawcutting methods are shown to support the results of the probabilistic analysis. From both an operational and cost standpoint, it is evident for the environmental conditions considered that early-entry sawcut methodology holds a significant advantage over conventional methods.