High heat leads to buckles in the road
The province will examine a stretch of Highway 3 that has experienced buckling several times over the last five years, including over the Canada Day weekend, which forced a temporary closure. “The ministry will review and assess the condition of the joints on this section of Highway 3 to ensure they are functioning as designed,” Ministry of Transportation spokeswoman Liane Fisher Bloxam told the Star in an email. As temperatures soared on Sunday, two sections of Highway 3 buckled, leading to a closure of the heavily travelled four-lane section of the road in the westbound lanes between Malden Road and Ellis Side Road in Tecumseh and Lakeshore.
Fisher Bloxam said the ministry’s contractor made temporary repairs to the damaged portion of the highway by early Monday morning and the road was reopened approximately 10 hours after the damage occurred. “MTO works with its contractors to monitor and repair the joints or the pavement as quickly as possible,” she said.
Fisher Bloxam explained that under extreme high temperatures and humidity, expansion force may cause concrete to buckle. The buckling can also be exacerbated by sand or debris in joints that separate slabs.
Concrete pavement is constructed with joints that are filled with a rubberized sealant, allowing the concrete to expand when needed. For five years running now, joints in the concrete roadway surface east of Manning Road have buckled when temperatures soared. The roadway heaved in the same lanes in the area just east of Manning Road in May.
At that time, the Ministry of Transportation said it had no concerns about the integrity of the road construction. Fisher Bloxam said the section of Highway 3 that was affected by the buckling over the weekend was in “good condition” before the recent extreme heat.
But the ongoing problems with that portion of Highway 3 are cause for concern for Essex County Warden Tom Bain. “We’re hoping the ministry will look into problems with Highway 3 … hoping something gets done soon,” Bain said. “There was heat all over the county and no other roads have experienced the same conditions.” Bain also said the diversion of traffic caused by any closures on the heavily travelled road would cost affected municipalities in the long run.