Extreme Heat Causes Pavement on I-94 to Buckle in Minnesota

[Shel_B]

The extreme heat experienced by much of the U.S. this summer is continuing to break down our very infrastructure. Two sections of the I-94 freeway buckled in Minnesota this week, where temperatures hit the triple digits this week.

The buckling happened near Moorhead, Minnesota, close to the state’s border with South Dakota. The Minnesota Department of Transportation tweeted images of the two sites on I-94 where the pavement gave way under intense heat and pressure:

CLICK HERE FOR FULL STORY

 

[brianl703]

It gets a little bit hotter around these parts and the last time I saw something like that, it was on a 2-lane road and I'm pretty sure the problem was the subgrade, not the pavement or the heat.

It alligator cracks in the cold and buckles in the heat, all because the underlying subgrade is presumably substandard.

 

[dnewton3]

PROBLEM
" ... The phenomena occurs as a result of older, weaker roads expanding farther then they were designed to due to extreme temperatures ..." (underline my emphasis)

SOLUTION
Make new roads designed with a greater temp delta in mind and better materials for more safety and reliability.


Should this really surprise anyone? Aging infrastructure needs replaced. What a shocker.

 

[fdcg27]

Roads are presumably built for the weather conditions expected.
Minnesota near SD does not typically see anything like triple digit ambient temperatures.

 

[doitmyself]

It will take decades to replace all the roads. We've seen this coming. We're kind of late to the game.

I don't see any buckling pavement in the picture. ***. This problem is easily solved with a few expansion joints cut in as needed. Live and learn.

 

[tbm5690]

Roads here go through hell and back every year, with temp differentials very routinely being 120 degrees or more, and that's air temp not surface temp. No material or quality of job can make a difference given that year after year.

 

[2010Civic]

They blame junk roads failing on climate change. How original.

 

[Passport1]

These stories happen every summer.


My wife's family is from the twin cities, MN. They tell her frequently how bad the roads have gotten. Weeks of sub zero temps and now stretches of temps that make Satan proud. I've bent a few rims on those potholes myself. Of course we're all told the etiology is anthropogenic and we must do something to fix it or travel by cars will be too dangerous. This summer even the MN lakes are full of walleyes with heat stroke.

We can't get the sun to cooperate so what shall we do?

 

[loneryder]

These stories happen every summer.


My wife's family is from the twin cities, MN. They tell her frequently how bad the roads have gotten. Weeks of sub zero temps and now stretches of temps that make Satan proud. I've bent a few rims on those potholes myself. Of course we're all told the etiology is anthropogenic and we must do something to fix it or travel by cars will be too dangerous. This summer even the MN lakes are full of walleyes with heat stroke.

We can't get the sun to cooperate so what shall we do?

Live with it like we always have. We just didn't have forums to make a big deal out of it.

 

[oldcodger]

The picture shows poured in place median barrier which should have had proper expansion joints provided. I live in the deep south and actual pavement blow ups are not uncommon. I remember them happening in the 1960s.

 

[Kestas]

I remember seeing I-94 buckle in Indiana 35 years ago during a heat wave. It affected two of the three lanes.

 

[Shel_B]

It will take decades to replace all the roads. We've seen this coming. We're kind of late to the game.

I don't see any buckling pavement in the picture. ***. This problem is easily solved with a few expansion joints cut in as needed. Live and learn.

View attachment 169790

All you had to do was read the article ...

 

[NiwradND]

Roads are presumably built for the weather conditions expected.
Minnesota near SD does not typically see anything like triple digit ambient temperatures.

False statement, roads been buckling for years due to heat. Especially when they put asphalt over concrete causing the additional heat by having long days of sunlight. The 1930 were hotter than the last 20 years, but no asphalt or concrete roads back then.

 

[dumkid]

In Arizona the I 10 partially melts every summer and the semi trucks make grooves in the road. I'm not surprised that the pavement buckled somewhere else.

 

[doitmyself]

All you had to do was read the article ...

Hmmm. That second picture did not show in the article when I opened it up several times. Odd. Maybe something to do with the picture tied to Twitter/X ?? Thanks for the clarification.

 

[D60]

Yeah I don't blame the OP but the hyped hysteria around climate change is.....tiring.

Seemingly every year now in Colorado there's some hype around something that is supposed to have something to do with El Nino or La Nina. News flash: in the winter CO gets cold and white stuff falls from the sky.

If there's very little snow, the in-crowd is supposed to talk about drought and hint at a non-secular apocalypse of sorts.

If there's a lot of snow (this is relative because I've seen A LOT of snow many years over my life) you're supposed to act panicked, close schools and use as an excuse to not go to work.

Sigh

 

[tmorris1]

The extreme heat experienced by much of the U.S. this summer is continuing to break down our very infrastructure. Two sections of the I-94 freeway buckled in Minnesota this week, where temperatures hit the triple digits this week.

The buckling happened near Moorhead, Minnesota, close to the state’s border with South Dakota. The Minnesota Department of Transportation tweeted images of the two sites on I-94 where the pavement gave way under intense heat and pressure:

CLICK HERE FOR FULL STORY

The sun comes up and goes down....

This happens every year, so not sure why this is a story. It must have been a slow news day and they wanted to get us worried that we are all going to die if we don't do something. Roads in MN endure -30 to 100 or more temp swings throughout the year and sometimes 40-50 degree swings or more within any given day.

We haven't had "extreme" heat in MN this year. It gets hotter than heck in the summer every July and August since I was born and nothing has changed.

 

[tmorris1]

Roads are presumably built for the weather conditions expected.
Minnesota near SD does not typically see anything like triple digit ambient temperatures.

This is not true. Come up here in the summer.

 

[D60]

The sun comes up and goes down....

This happens every year, so not sure why this is a story. It must have been a slow news day and they wanted to get us worried that we are all going to die if we don't do something. Roads in MN endure -30 to 100 or more temp swings throughout the year and sometimes 40-50 degree swings or more within any given day.

We haven't had "extreme" heat in MN this year. It gets hotter than heck in the summer every July and August since I was born and nothing has changed.

This. I also believe such things would have happened in 1930, 1920 or 1900 if we had similar roads back then.

The BIG difference was less population and no internet, so once the three witnesses died the story is lost to history. Now we can instantly share "record breaking" or "unprecedented" events with the entire world.

Furthermore weather is basically boring -- at least by today's standards -- so places like the Weather Channel need to drive hysteria in an attempt to get clicks and views.

 

[tmorris1]

This. I also believe such things would have happened in 1930, 1920 or 1900 if we had similar roads back then.

The BIG difference was less population and no internet, so once the three witnesses died the story is lost to history. Now we can instantly share "record breaking" or "unprecedented" events with the entire world.

Furthermore weather is basically boring -- at least by today's standards -- so places like the Weather Channel need to drive hysteria in an attempt to get clicks and views.

They always use "extreme", "record breaking", and "Unprecedented". None of this is true and it is scare tactics. This is normal for the area and without looking up data, I would say this summer has not been as hot as normal. It has been pretty mild with the exception of last week and that was only upper ninetys for a few days.