I-94 in Minnesota Buckles From the Intense Heat

Everyone knows it's been crazy hot this past week.  The heat dome that was hovering over the Southern part of the United States moved North enough that we, here in Minnesota, have been dealing with some intense heat and humidity.  Yesterday morning (Thursday) the humitity was so high that if you wore glasses they would most likely fog up as soon as you walked outside.

When it gets this hot, roadways can/will suffer and can heave.

Fom MNDOT:

Pavement buckles can occur when the air temperature changes from moderate to extreme heat. 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. 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.

That is just the situation that happened near Moorhead this past week.  The road has buckled in the middle.  That would be a very scary situation if you were traveling at a normal speed that you would on an Interstate.  Usually traffic runs anywhere from 70-80+mph. And traveling at that speed and encountering this, is a recipe for disaster.

Get our free mobile app

The story that was put out on Yahoo News states that this buckling on I-94 happened near Moorhead, and they say on the South Dakota border.  Well, we all know that Moorhead is located on the North Dakota border, so someone needs to do some more geography research, but this is something that needs to be addressed as soon as possible.  If you do find a road buckled from the heat try to change lanes as quickly as possible, and maybe pull over as soon as you can and call someone.

MNDOT says this is what is recommended if you see a road buckled.

If you spot a pavement buckle, slow down, change lanes carefully, and call 911 to report it," the MnDOT said.

Luckily, the temperatures are cooling a bit over the next few days, and it's nothing compared to what the Southern states have been dealing with; but this is still brutal.  The humidity added to the heat can be dangerous if you have any sort of breathing issues or aren't able to take advantage of some much needed A/C.

Here's to Summer in Minnesota!