Retrofitting Dowel Bars Retrofitting dowel bars is a method to reestablish load transfer across joints or cracks. It requires cutting slots across each joint to house new dowel bars. The underlying purpose of retrofitting dowel bars is to repair faulted joints or cracks and prevent recurrence of the faults. However, if the faulted joints or cracks are already badly spalled, retrofitting dowels is not recommended, and full- or partial-depth patching is necessary. Load transfer refers to the ability of a joint to transfer a portion of a load applied on one slab to an adjacent slab. The higher the load transfer, the more evenly a load near a joint is distributed to the subbase and subgrade. This usually translates into better pavement performance. Poor load transfer generally leads to faulting, pumping, corner breaks, or spalling. For more information, follow: "Dowel Retrofit Restores Pavement Load Transfer" (RP335)