DECATUR, Ill. (WAND)- Streets and highways have buckled in spots around Central Illinois amid high temperatures.
Thursday night, a portion of Route 51 near Maroa buckled, local police said. Sunday, another portion of Route 51 buckled, according to information shared by the Wapella Fire Department. Monday, crews were repairing a portion of buckled street on Nicklaus Drive in Champaign.
“In a lot of the concrete pavements around here, especially on the interstates, the reason they buckle is that they’re actually reinforced in place,” said Macon County engineer Bruce Bird. “They have steel reinforcement that keeps them together in one big slab. As they age and get older, there’s occasionally some spots that are weaker than other, so when the concrete pavement wants to expand, it finds those weak spots.”
Repairing those buckles can take several steps, Bird said.
“They’ll go out and stabilize that location, remove anything that’s buckled up, and put some temporary asphalt in there,” Bird said. ‘The long-term solution is with the reinforcement in the pavement, they come in and put a permanent patch, but they have to tie that reinforcement together before they cover all the concrete up.”
