SALT LAKE CITY — First it was potholes, now it’s road buckles.
After days of triple degree temperatures, roads such as US-89 to North Temple, and all over northern Utah, have experienced road buckling.
"I’m not too surprised that the road buckled because of the heat,” said Cindy Meastas of Rose Park.
The Utah Department of Transportation says when temperatures get hot the concrete expands.
“There’s usually an expansion joint that allows that to happen, if that expansion joint is clogged, it doesn't allow any place for the concrete to expand it essentially goes up,” said UDOT spokesperson John Gleason.
Gleason says the road buckle on North Temple was one of the bigger ones UDOT has experienced.
"It actually spanned the width of Redwood Road and we actually closed down Redwood for a little while there so we could get an asphalt patch in,” he explained.
As a driver, Maestas says the road buckling is concerning.
"You don't know they're there till you hit it, and hitting one of those going that fast, it's dangerous," she said. "It's dangerous, it's scary, it's hard on our cars,”
UDOT says as soon as it gets a report of road buckling, crews respond as soon as possible.
“Crews will get out there and close down the lanes and cut out the affected pavement, and then we can either put in a quick asphalt patch and come in for a more permanent fix when traffic counts are lighter, or we can put in a quick setting concrete patch and get the road open in two hours usually,” Gleason said.
Maestas says she was pleasantly surprised to see the North Temple road buckle was already fixed Monday, and hopes other roads with damage can be fixed quickly as well.
"During the summer months ,that's when we get a lot of our work done on new projects, maintenance projects, making sure our roads are in good shape,” Gleason said. “Our crews are ready, our crews are out there ready to respond"
