Pavement and industrial slab joints use smooth round or plate dowels, debonded on one side with grease or a sleeve, so wheel loads cross the joint without faulting while shrinkage can still pull the panels apart. A 10 in highway slab commonly carries 1.25 in round dowels at 12 in centers in wire baskets. Misaligned or bonded dowels lock the joint and crack the slab beside it.
Check the dowel baskets are square to the joint, one cockeyed dowel and that panel cracks the first winter.
Also heard as
- dowel bar
- plate dowel
Related terms
Construction joint
A planned stopping point between two placements, prepared so the next pour bonds to it or transfers load across it.
Control joint
A planned groove or sawcut that makes a slab crack in a straight line exactly where the crew wants it.
Isolation joint
A full-depth separation between a slab and a fixed element, so each can move without cracking the other.
Rebar
Deformed steel bar cast into concrete to carry the tension that plain concrete cannot.