CAPE GIRARDEAU, Mo. — Forget about potholes, at least for now.
It's the time of year when weather-related defects in streets and roads — road buckling — follow another trajectory: up, not down. The phenomenon was on dramatic display last month in Cape Girardeau, Missouri, when an overheated section of a roadway suddenly jolted upward as a car passed, sending the auto airborne.
Upward movement in the street section in question had already prompted officials to place an orange sign reading "bump" at the spot as a warning to motorists. Then, suddenly, as a car approached the slightly buckled section, the roadway surged upward with a slight "whoosh" and the car went up the small ramp and caught a split second of air before crashing down.
And it was all caught on video.
Other motorists who witnessed the spectacle from behind quickly caught on, slowly traversing the damaged road to avoid harm to their shock absorbers.
The incident occurred on June 22, when the heat index in the Missouri city reached 107 degrees Fahrenheit, CBS News reported. "The man who recorded the moment said he had been filming a bulge in the pavement when 'the road exploded and rose over 18 inches,'" the news network said.
Road buckling occurs in hot temperatures, when the heat causes expansion of road sections.
"When a road is constructed, it is cut into segments, creating a space for expansion and contraction. Sometimes that space is not enough and when that happens the pavement buckles or blows up, particularly when the pavement is older and weaker," reads a Minnesota Department of Transportation explanation of the phenomenon. "The warmer the temperature, the more the pavement material expands. The sun heats the pavement, and the pavement expands and then buckles. Buckles more commonly occur on older concrete pavements."
Blacktop, according to Minnesota roads officials, is more flexible "and does not usually blow up."
Utah Department of Transportation spokesman John Gleason says there typically isn't much warning ahead of a buckling instance, so, as always, keep alert while driving.
"When they happen, we have to respond very quickly, shut down the road, so that nobody has any car or vehicle damage," Gleason told KSL-TV last summer.
Have You Seen This?
Bees player gets called up to the majors in middle of the game
A Salt Lake Bees player recently learned just how unpredictable the call to the big leagues can be.
