Summer heat can prompt road buckling. Here's why it happens, and where
In 2020, just a few months before the state kicked off a $210 million rebuild of 22 miles of Interstate 69 between Charlotte and Marshall, along with six interchanges, the pavement on the aging highway buckled on at least two occasions.
Parts of I-69 south of Lansing are more than 50 years old, said Aaron Jenkins, a spokesperson for the Michigan Department of Transportation, making the highway a prime candidate for road buckling, or "pavement blowup," a phenomenon more commonly seen in southern states where it is hotter, and for longer periods.
"The older the roadway, the more vulnerable it is to that high temperature-related blowup," he said.
Buckling can happen on mid-Michigan roads during the hottest days of the summer months, Jenkins said.
Here's what you need to know about road buckling, why it happens and how to report it.
What is road buckling?
"Concrete expands in hot weather, causing the material to exceed the space available and push upward," said Jenkins. "Engineers call the phenomenon pavement blowup."
Buckling happens when concrete expands, breaks or lifts away from the roadbed. In Michigan, buckling often looks like the pavement has been pushed up from below, he said.
What factors contribute to it?
Temperatures above 90 degrees and moisture both contribute to pavement buckling. The age of the road and how well the pavement has been maintained are factors as well.
"It's dirt and grime buildup that goes into the joints that cause it to expand or rise," Jenkins said.
Maintenance patching materials used to repair potholes and cracks also fill expansion joints in the pavement, he said.
On I-69 south of Charlotte, where buckling occurred more than once both in 2020 and 2018, "High relative humidity at the concrete pavement joints was present," Jenkins said.
The humidity contributed to the concrete breaking down and the aggregate, or stones in the mix, came out of the mix and migrated deeper into the joints during the winter when the pavement contracted. In the summer, when the pavement expanded from the heat, the aggregate wouldn't compress and the pavement buckled, he explained in an email.
Where have we seen it happen?
In the last five years, road buckling has been seen most often in mid-Michigan on I-69 south of Lansing in southern Eaton County.
The interstate's pavement buckled several times over the span of 25 hours on I-69 near Cochran and Ainger roads in the summer of 2018, then again in May and July of 2020.
The buckling incidences were among the reasons state officials targeted that portion of the interstate for rebuilding, Jenkins said.
The work started in September 2020 and it will wrap up this fall, he said.
In 2018, buckling also occurred on U.S. 127 near Saginaw Highway and Interstate 496 between Washington and Grand avenues.
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How can you report buckling?
Drivers can report buckling on mid-Michigan highways by calling MDOT's Lansing Transportation Service Center hotline at 517-335-3717.
Potholes on highways throughout the state can be reported to MDOT at 888-296-4546.
Contact Rachel Greco at rgreco@lsj.com. Follow her on Twitter @GrecoatLSJ .
This article originally appeared on Lansing State Journal: Highways, roads can buckle in heat. Here's why it happens
