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Heat buckles pavement, snarling Twin Cities traffic
MPR ^ | 6-6-11 | Nancy Lebens

Posted on 06/07/2011 12:30:26 PM PDT by WOBBLY BOB

St. Paul, Minn. — The Minnesota Department of Transportation is warning motorists to watch out for roads that might buckle without warning.

MnDOT spokesman Kent Barnard said the heat and humidity had caused pavement to heave on some Twin Cities metro highways.

Monday afternoon lanes were closed in I-94 in Minneapolis and St. Paul. Barnard said heat damaged roads in more than 20 places.

Barnard said he has not heard of accidents associated with buckling pavement. But he'd heard reports of damage to cars.

Older concrete highways are more prone to heave up, as debris fills the cracks between the panels, leaving no place for the pavement to expand.

(Excerpt) Read more at minnesota.publicradio.org ...


TOPICS: Miscellaneous; News/Current Events; US: Minnesota
KEYWORDS: doom; heat; pavement; traffic
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To: ButThreeLeftsDo
a material that will withstand the exteremes hasn’t been invented yet.

And if it were invented this afternoon; it would be a far cry more expensive than a bucket of asphalt!!

21 posted on 06/07/2011 12:51:38 PM PDT by Hodar (Who needs laws .... when this "feels" so right?)
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To: WOBBLY BOB

think they are trying to help Romney?
highs suppose only in 60’s thrusday


22 posted on 06/07/2011 12:55:54 PM PDT by SF_Redux (Sarah stands for accountablility and personal responsiblity, democrats can't live with that)
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To: steve86

Come to the west side of Washington. 10 months of rain, two months of summer. Three to four weeks ( Maybe) of hot weather and lots and lots of liberals sipping lattes.


23 posted on 06/07/2011 12:58:36 PM PDT by dragonblustar (Got toast?)
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To: steve86

Yep, in Northern CA are temps hit highs of 106-110 for most of August every year but no buckling that I know of. Sounds like shoddy construction to me. Plus, paved roads have been in existence for about 100 years and they are just now having problems?


24 posted on 06/07/2011 1:01:38 PM PDT by calex59
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To: johniegrad

nice...

good day to be at Madeline Island.


25 posted on 06/07/2011 1:01:52 PM PDT by WOBBLY BOB ( "I don't want the majority if we don't stand for something"- Jim Demint)
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To: WOBBLY BOB

We have a lot of trouble with potholes and frost heaves here in Vermont. It’s the freezing and thawing that does it.

Concrete roads proved to be a mistake in the northern states, at least here in New England. When Eisenhower put in the interstates, they were mostly done in concrete, and that proved to be a mistake. First they tried resurfacing with asphalt, and eventually they replaced most of them entirely with asphalt, because they just kept buckling. They left expansion cracks between the slabs, but that just didn’t work.


26 posted on 06/07/2011 1:02:06 PM PDT by Cicero (Marcus Tullius)
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To: DoughtyOne
"How do you cover this story and not give the temperatures/humidity involved, and why the Twin Cities are experiencing this problem when states across this nation have temperatures/humidity far higher, and don’t"

That bugs me too. If it's a heat wave or a cold spell.. everybody everywhere is either plopping over from the heat or freezing to death. What about people who live in the Sonoran Desert or some remote Alaskan town? How do they cheat death?

Also.. LOL @ omitting data critical to the story!


27 posted on 06/07/2011 1:08:33 PM PDT by I see my hands (Embrace misanthropy)
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To: Hodar

As I pointed out, our area has experienced around a 140F differential. Also have a number of concrete freeways and buckling is unheard of. My conclusion is that MN roadway engineering is deficient, to include bridges.


28 posted on 06/07/2011 1:14:27 PM PDT by steve86 (Acerbic by nature, not nurture (Could be worst in 40 years))
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To: Cicero

High-tech concrete technology has a famous past

Almost 1,900 years ago, the Romans built what continues to be the world’s largest unreinforced solid concrete dome in the world—the Pantheon. The secret, probably unknown to the Emperor Hadrian’s engineers at the time, was that the lightweight concrete used to build the dome had set and hardened from the inside out. This internal curing process enhanced the material’s strength, durability, resistance to cracking, and other properties so that the Pantheon continues to be used for special events to this day.

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/2690198/posts

we should have hired non-union Romans.


29 posted on 06/07/2011 1:20:26 PM PDT by WOBBLY BOB ( "I don't want the majority if we don't stand for something"- Jim Demint)
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To: I see my hands
Senator Fights EPA's Proposed Rule, Works to Protect North Dakota Jobs

In a bipartisan letter to President Obama, Senator Conrad and 43 senators said a swiftly finalizing appropriate regulations for coal ash provides the "best solution for the environment and for the economy."

The senators said the environmental advantages of the beneficial use of coal ash in products such as concrete and road base are well-established. They noted coal ash makes concrete stronger and cuts down on the production of more energy-consuming cements. A 2010 study by the University of Wisconsin and the Electric Power Research Institute found the beneficial use of coal ash reduced annual greenhouse gas emissions by an equivalent of 11 million tons of carbon dioxide, annual energy consumption by 162 trillion British thermal units, and annual water usage by 32 billion gallons.

Senator Conrad also highlighted the fact that an EPA hazardous waste designation would "overwhelm existing hazardous waste disposal capacity" and strain critical budget and staff resources.

http://politicalnews.me/?id=7691&keys=COAL-ASH-EPA-NONHAZARD

30 posted on 06/07/2011 1:45:55 PM PDT by WOBBLY BOB ( "I don't want the majority if we don't stand for something"- Jim Demint)
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To: Hodar
Contrast that to your Death Valley, which ranges between +30 to 160 - that’s only a 130 degree variation (20 degree less variation). When that asphalt expands and contracts - it’s gotta go somewhere

???

The only way this would matter is if the asphalt was laid during the dead of winter or if it somehow gains asphalt 'volume' when it contracts.

If it were laid in the spring or summer, then the amount of expansion during the heat of the summer months would be minimal.

Since asphalt is not a living, breathing entity, no new asphalt 'cells' are added when it contracts. So, it's the same amount of asphalt during the entire 12 months of a year.

31 posted on 06/07/2011 1:57:42 PM PDT by Ol' Dan Tucker (People should not be afraid of the government. Governement should be afraid of the people)
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To: Ol' Dan Tucker

Good points.
The other thing is sunshine.
You can easily have asphalt 40F above ambient if the solar load is right.


32 posted on 06/07/2011 2:02:49 PM PDT by nascarnation
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To: ButThreeLeftsDo
That's why maintenance is (should be) done on a regular basis.
33 posted on 06/07/2011 2:10:34 PM PDT by count-your-change (You don't have be brilliant, not being stupid is enough.)
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To: count-your-change

There are two seasons in Minnesota.

Winter and road repair.


34 posted on 06/07/2011 2:20:46 PM PDT by ButThreeLeftsDo (FreeRepublic.com. Now, More Than Ever.)
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To: nascarnation; Hodar
The other thing is sunshine.
You can easily have asphalt 40F above ambient if the solar load is right.

But, given the differences in latitude, there will always be less sunlight striking the northern states than there is in Death Valley or Arizona at any time of year.

So, the temperature of the asphalt in the lower latitudes will actually be higher than it would in the higher ones.

35 posted on 06/07/2011 2:33:32 PM PDT by Ol' Dan Tucker (People should not be afraid of the government. Governement should be afraid of the people)
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To: WOBBLY BOB

True. The Romans also invented the water mill, although they never made widespread use of it because they had slaves to do the heavy work.

So it wasn’t really developed until the middle ages, mostly in monasteries. That was the basis of industrial and technological development for more than a thousand years, until it was finally replaced by the steam engine.


36 posted on 06/07/2011 2:34:13 PM PDT by Cicero (Marcus Tullius)
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To: WOBBLY BOB

This is one if the reasons why I have advocated a transition to rubber roads and asphalt tires for so many years.


37 posted on 06/07/2011 2:40:38 PM PDT by Repeal The 17th (Proud to be a (small) monthly donor.)
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To: I see my hands

Well, one person stated it was because of the wide temperature variations. I’m not quite sure I can buy into that. Let’s recall that on some days, the temperature can change as much as 50 degrees. If my memory is accurate, I’ve actually heard of a few rare cases where the temperature change much more than that without widespread road problems.

The omissions were rather glaring huh.

Thanks for the response.


38 posted on 06/07/2011 2:43:49 PM PDT by DoughtyOne (Conservatism: Come up with a better political belief system, and I'll adopt it as my own.)
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To: DoughtyOne
I keep forgetting to ask. Are you Zathras,
Zathras, or Zathras?
39 posted on 06/07/2011 2:44:19 PM PDT by Hillarys Gate Cult (Those who trade land for peace will end up with neither one.)
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To: Hillarys Gate Cult

No, but that’s an interesting way of asking?

I’m interested to know the reason for placing the same spelling of Zathras in there three times.

Am I missing an inside joke or something else?


40 posted on 06/07/2011 4:10:43 PM PDT by DoughtyOne (Conservatism: Come up with a better political belief system, and I'll adopt it as my own.)
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