Early Summer Heat Wave Buckling Pavement

The Weather Channel predicted above-average warmth for the Southwest, Midwest, Great Lakes and Northeast back in April (of 2012). The fact that highway pavement is buckling in all those places from heat – already in June – is proving that forecast to be on the money.

That’s because scorching summertime temperatures in the 90s and 100s (Fahrenheit – in Celsius that’s about 32 to 38 degrees C and higher) have come early to each of these regions. Already by mid-June, municipalities from Oklahoma to Pennsylvania began dealing with sudden roadway eruptions, caused when the expansion of concrete pavement under extreme temperatures forces sections to buckle. When the first heavy vehicle rolls over those buckles, the pavement crumbles and you get the summer version of a pothole. Asphalt pavement offers a different phenomenon, that of trapped water in sublayers under pavement. Under extreme heat conditions, trapped moisture that cooks under the roadway can literally explode – quite like steam blowing the lid off a pressure cooker.

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