DOT: No way to know when weather will cause roads to buckle

Steve Abbott with the North Carolina Department of Transportation said he believes heat caused the buckled pavement along I-440 between Hillsborough Street and Western Boulevard.

“Some moisture from all the rain that we’ve had recently got down under the roadway, and with the hot weather sort of bubbled up, steamed up and forced the concrete that was underneath up a little bit,” Abbott said.

Abbott said there is no way for the DOT to anticipate when hot, sticky weather will create more cracks.

“Usually there isn’t anything you can do ahead of time because you just don’t know,” Abbott said. “This section right here might be good, but this section might be bad, and there’s no way to test to see what’s going to be good for another 20 years and what’s going to cause trouble five years from now.”