As Lucas recently noted, Summer finally arrived in Oklahoma last week as we experienced our first moderate heat wave of the year. Although high temperatures ranged anywhere from the mid to high 1990s, it was still a ways off from the impending dog days of July and August where temperatures can climb into the ball chaffing 100s. Knowing that, it may seem a tiny bit alarming that our state's prestigious, highly-maintained network of roads and bridges that are the envy of the western civilized world are already buckling due to heat.
Via News 9:
Motorists ran into some trouble - and a buckled roadway - on Interstate 40 Saturday. Road crews were brought out late Saturday night to do emergency repairs on the major Oklahoma interstate after extreme heat caused I-40 to buckle about a half mile west of the interchange with Highway 69, according to News On 6 storm tracker Darren Stephens.
Oklahoma Department of Transportation workers had to dig out the portion of buckled road which was raised up about eight inches. Several motorists hit the section and notified troopers with the Oklahoma Highway Patrol.
ODOT closed the outside lane of the highway as workers patched it overnight. Another day of extreme heat is expected Sunday though temperatures aren't expected to climb quite as high as the last few days.
The roadway has been repaired, Stephens said.
I've thinking a fun little summer feature for the site would be the Top 25 reasons to move out of Oklahoma. Where would our roads and bridges that now buckle when the temperature reaches 96 degrees rank on the site. Top 20? Top 10? Also, on a scale of 1-10, how worried should we be about the difficulty of the question? Please advise in the comments.
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