Restore T.R.U.S.T.

Tulsa World
By GAVIN OFF World Data Editor
Published: 8/4/20102:22 AM
Last Modified: 8/4/20103:50 AM

First it was the cold weather and the protective mixture of salt and sand.

Now it's the 100-plus-degree temperatures.

Tulsa's aging roads and bridges can't seem to get a break.

Oklahoma Department of Transportation officials said excessive heat helped cause two of the area's recent highway problems — an opening in a Broken Arrow Expressway bridge and the buckling concrete on U.S. 75.

"Anytime you get heat upwards of 105 like we've been having lately, we'll see thermal expansion in the pavement," said Randle White, ODOT's division engineer for the Tulsa area.

Typically, built-in expansion joints allow for such movements. But when they're filled in with sand, they restrict the pavement's lateral expansion, forcing it to buckle up, or in the bridge's case, collapse downward... FULL ARTICLE