SERVICE PERFORMANCE OF CRACK REPAIR IN CONCRETE TRANSPORTATION AND CIVIL INFRASTRUCTURE UNDER SEVERE CONTINENTAL CLIMATES: A CRITICAL REVIEW

Abstract

Concrete crack repair in transport and civil infrastructure is governed by defect cause, moisture, movement, installation conditions and retained interface function, not by product strength alone. Severe continental service adds cold application, saturation, freeze–thaw, deicing salts, thermal movement, abrasion and traffic loading. This targeted critical evidence review considered 60 sources published in 2000-2026: 51 peer-reviewed papers and nine standards, agency reports or official sources. The corpus comprised a 45-source core and 15 DOI-verified records added through a focused regional, coupled-exposure and 2026 update. Evidence was coded by repair function, application variables, outcome, validation scale and direct or supporting role; incompatible tests were not pooled. Stable structural cracks may justify low-viscosity rigid injection, whereas water-bearing or moving cracks require leakage- or movement-oriented systems. Within individual studies, gravity-filled epoxy reduced the compressive-strength deficit to 8.23%; low-viscosity epoxy produced a 25% greater slant-shear response than a high-viscosity comparator; and low-temperature epoxy pre-curing increased wet bond by up to 34.3% while reducing cured-resin shrinkage by 12.0%. Direct coupled abrasion-freeze-thaw and bond-deterioration studies confirm that initial strength cannot represent retained interface performance. A threshold-based selection framework is proposed, but it remains an author-developed framework requiring prospective validation. Regional field comparisons, long-duration conditioned interfaces and monitored pilot repairs remain priority gaps.