I-10 segment closed as heat buckles road
Even some roads can’t handle Houston’s heat wave.
A segment of the Interstate 10 East frontage road near Wayside Drive recently had to be closed for repairs after the road buckled.
Crews from the Texas Department of Transportation were working to fix the road Tuesday. Danny Perez, a TxDOT spokesman, told the Chronicle workers hoped to finish the job and reopen the road by later in the evening.
The entire road must be ripped out and new concrete laid in order to fix a road that has buckled, Perez said.
Road buckles can be extremely dangerous for motorists and driving over a road buckle should be avoided, if possible.
The stretch of I-10 wasn’t the first time a road has buckled in the region due to heat.
Only last week a road buckle caused a shutdown of Texas 6 between Manvel and Alvin for hours while crews replaced the road.
Perez told local news last week TxDOT has had around five to 10 road buckles in recent days amid the latest heat wave.
“We do have these types of issues at different times, but we’re seeing it a lot more frequently because of the heat,” Perez told KHOU.
“Rains impact those particular parts of the pavement and then over time when the sun comes up and we have the hot, the heat that we’re having currently, that could cause a problem for that. That pavement is hard to break up.”
Roads buckle when the temperature rises from moderate to extreme heat.
Moisture can seep into a space or crack in a road and when the temperature rises, the moisture can cause the road to buckle and warp.
Roads typically buckle during afternoons with 90-degree or hotter temperatures, according to Accuweather.
Drivers should pay attention to when roads break and report any issues they see.