(Jefferson City, MO) — Missouri Department of Transportation Engineer Becky Allmeroth says repair crews have had to deal with at least 100 stretches of failed pavement this spring and early summer. According to Allmeroth, the record rainfall and hot temperatures are the main factors causing chunks of pavement to shift.
Video this week surfaced from Cape Girardeau showing a driver’s car vaulting into the air when the driver came across a buckled section of pavement. The video has spread quickly on social media and has been replayed by dozens of television stations.
Allmeroth said it’s actually pretty rare for two big sections to shift the way they did in Cape Girardeau. She said most of the time the buckles are smaller and crews are able to fix them temporarily so travel can continue, until a more permanent fix can be done.
Allmeroth said MoDot crews travel throughout the state daily, inspecting and looking for possible pavement issues.
“So hopefully we can catch most of those buckling issues while they’re small before it actually blows up, like it did on the video,” she said.
But they also need the public’s help. Missourians can call 1-888-ASKMODOT to report a pavement failure.
Allmeroth said another factor in pavement failure is the age of the pavement and the volume of traffic. She cites I-70 as an example of an older roadway that is prone to pavement buckling.
“It is the perfect storm for that concrete to expand, and especially with older concrete, it can’t take the pressure. And a lot of times it will just pop very spectacularly like that video did. Other times not as spectacular and you’ll see the roadway start to form a little bit of a hump,” Allmeroth said. “But it really is our higher volume routes with the higher traffic that you typically see either the humping or the pavement or these blowups occur.”
She said road repair crews usually place a “bump” sign at a location where they’ve done a temporary pavement fix. She reminds drivers, and especially motorcyclists, to pay attention to those.
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