Summer 2024’s record heat is creating problems for transportation infrastructure, from roads to rails.
New York’s Third Avenue Bridge, which swings open for ship traffic on the Harlem River, was stuck for hours after its metal expanded in the heat and it couldn’t close. Roads have buckled on hot days in several states, including Washington and Wisconsin. Amtrak warned passengers to prepare for heat-related problems hours before a daylong outage between New York and New Jersey; the risks to power lines and rails during high temperatures are a growing source of delays for the train system.
It doesn’t help that the worsening heat is hitting a U.S. infrastructure system that’s already in trouble.
The American Society of Civil Engineers gave U.S. infrastructure an overall grade of C- in its latest national Infrastructure Report Card, released in 2021. While there has been some improvement – about 7.5% of U.S. bridges were in poor condition, compared with over 12% a decade earlier – many bridges are aging, making them difficult to maintain. Forty percent of the road system was considered in poor or mediocre condition, and maintenance costs have substantially increased.
The rate at which a bridge or road deteriorates depends not only on the materials and construction methods used but also on the climate during the structure’s life span. Extreme heat, in particular, significantly affects transportation infrastructure. As climate change progresses, the frequency and intensity of heat waves are expected to increase, exacerbating these issues.
I lead the Smart Infrastructure and Testing Laboratory at the University of Texas at Arlington, where my team works on ways to better monitor the structural health of infrastructure. Here’s why infrastructure struggles in the heat – and how engineers are innovating to help extend its life.
Buckling highways pose a hazard for drivers
When a road is built, it is cut into segments to create space for the pavement to expand during high heat or to contract in the cold. Without that space, the pavement can buckle when the road material heats up. Buckling of concrete pavement has become a serious problem in several states.
Pavement becomes vulnerable to buckling for a number of reasons. The roadway’s design, the materials it is made out of, the climate when it was built and the weather during its lifetime can affect its life span, as can damage to the road and improper repairs.
Extreme temperatures and heavy precipitation can cause significant damage to roadways and jeopardize the structural integrity of rail systems. Additionally, sea-level rise is accelerating coastal erosion that can undermine roads and rail lines. The deterioration of pavement leads to traffic delays and damaged vehicles. And, most critically, it can cause traffic accidents.
Hot rails can expand and also buckle
Rail expansion is another significant concern, especially with continuous welded rails like the main lines that trains use.
When temperatures rise, rails expand due to the heat. This expansion can create high pressure and tension within the rail material. Combined with the forces exerted by moving trains, this pressure can cause the tracks to buckle to the side and become misaligned. It is sometimes referred to as a “sun kink.”
Buckling rails are a serious safety hazard that can cause derailments. That’s one of the reasons Amtrak slows its speed in extreme heat, often leading to schedule delays. Washington, D.C.’s Metro cuts its trains speed to a maximum of 35 mph once rails reach a temperature of 135 degrees Fahrenheit (57 degrees Celsius).
Predicting these thermal stresses can be challenging. Rail temperature measurements alone are not enough, because there are many unknown factors related to the track’s structure and how it moves. This makes it difficult to accurately forecast how much the rails will expand or contract.
Engineers can reduce rail expansion risk by using heat-resistant materials, such as hypereutectoid rail steel and martensite rail steel, adjusting track design and ensuring timely repairs.
To prevent roadways from buckling, engineers also have protective measures, such as using single-cut sawed joints filled with sealant to provide flexibility while keeping water out. They can also implement cold weather concreting practices that avoid pouring concrete during low temperatures or on cold bases, and they can use stronger and more durable concrete. Performing timely repairs when pavement cracks and becomes damaged can also help avoid buckling.
Keeping infrastructure healthy
Infrastructure health is similar to human health: If doctors detect problems such as tumors or cancer only in the later stages, it is often too late. Like human bodies, infrastructure needs to be maintained from the beginning to reduce costs and increase the potential for effective rehabilitation.
One area my department works on is nondestructive evaluation methods for monitoring infrastructure without causing damage or requiring long road closures.
We use mobile scanning systems that are almost like portable MRI machines to look for weakness or defects in bridges, roads and runways. We are also developing advanced sensors that use mechanical and magnetic field phenomena to assess the condition of infrastructure, and we are using artificial intelligence to spot problems in the materials.
Infrastructure will face increasing challenges as the climate changes and roads, bridges and other infrastructure age. The large number of buckling roadways and other problems this summer highlight the urgent need for resilient infrastructure to stand up to the future.
SuYun Ham is a professor in the Engineering Department at the University of Texas in Arlington, Texas.
The Conversation is an independent and nonprofit source of news, analysis and commentary from academic experts.
© The Conversation
43 Comments
TaiwanIsNotChina
MAGAs should at least pay to upgrade the infrastructure for the climate crisis they create.
sakurasuki
Aging infrastructure it's just a reflection of aging politicians in US.
Even current candidates average age is 60s.
Kamala: 59-year-old, Tim: 60-year-old and their average age: 59.5
Trump: 78-year-old, Vance: 40-year-old and their average age: 59
US just really love to elect old people.
https://www.economist.com/graphic-detail/2024/07/17/american-politicians-are-the-oldest-in-the-rich-world
https://www.forbes.com/sites/joshuacohen/2024/04/16/the-aging-american-politician-how-us-deviates-from-its-european-peers/
Pukey2
Unfortunately there's no money left for infrastructure maintenance and building. The money's all gone to pay for wars, weapons, oligarchs and the military industrial complex.
ArtistAtLarge
Some context:
Roads - Only interstate highways and coastal waterways are maintained by the federal government. ALL other roads are maintained by the state, county and town/city
Rail - all rail is owned by corporations. Lack of upgrades and maintenance is their failure. Even what little local commuter rail there is often owned by a corporate/government partnership
Utilities - Hybrid ownership. Some are town/city/country owned, most are wholly owned by corporations
Transcontinental pipelines - wholly owned by corporations.
And look at that, 90% of it all is owned by corporations. Maybe they should have bought less avocado toast and iPhones and saved some money.
ArtistAtLarge
How is the relevant, sakurasuki?
TaiwanIsNotChina
Still 3% of US GDP.
TaiwanIsNotChina
No company builds infrastructure unless they are paid to do so. Sad fact of capitalism.
TaiwanIsNotChina
Japan seemed to do quite well with its infrastructure/politician age ratio.
Pukey2
taiwanchina:
So why is there never enough money for the citizens of your country - healthcare, poverty alleviation, aid for the homeless, combatting crime? Always seems to be more than enough money for wars.
sakurasuki
@TaiwanIsNotChina
Try to go outside big cities, go to rural area. You can enjoy those potholes, made in Japan.
sakurasuki
@ArtistAtLarge
Because old people never would live up the consequence, of failing infrastructure.
Let next generation deal with that.
TaiwanIsNotChina
On the contrary: old people need the public transit working or they won't be able to get around at all.
TaiwanIsNotChina
Police states have some clean cities because they control all aspects of people's lives and there are no jobs available but cleaning. This is in contrast to free America.
jackandjill
Trump had promised to fix the highways, bridges, and infrastructures. Guess he forgot.
sakurasuki
@TaiwanIsNotChina
On contrary, places they visit is really limited, medical facilities, park and groceries stores. They just travel nearby, so as long they live in dense populated area, is enough for them.
Remember they living on their pension saving, where's they have money to spend? Their kids?
bass4funk
No, way before Trump got into office you had Democrats demanding to receive more money, especially in Democrat, run states for infrastructure, every single time nothing changed and the money was accounted for and this happened repeatedly over and over, so the Democrats talk a good game about wanting to rebuild the infrastructure across America, particularly in the East Coast and once they get the money they end up not doing anything, all you need to do is drive through the roads, New York or New Jersey, Georgia and the horrible, bottles everywhere, bridges falling apart, so many buildings that need to be retrofit it updated to new safety guidelines, this has absolutely nothing to do with Trump, this goes way back for a few decades. If the left could, they would blame Trump for all the earthquakes that we have been having for the last few days.
wallace
In his 2016 campaign, Trump vowed to revamp the infrastructure using private financing.
Strangerland
Biden was able to pass the massive infrastructure bill Trump said he would, but Trump was too incompetent to actually make happen. So he kicked the can down for a more competent president, and Biden stepped up to the plate and showed what it means to actually be able to do the job.
zibala
That's an issue for US voters.
ClippetyClop
He looks shattered. Even his enormous make up team can't make him look not shattered.
And the Trump Book of Fear isn't selling as well as it was, because America seems to be doing quite well under Biden's careful management.
Strangerland
Fox, believe it or not!
zibala
Not.
Who is the guest on Fox right now?
bass4funk
That is true and Trump had to deal with the faux Russian collusion, delusion Mueller investigation that took him away from his agenda.
bass4funk
And nothing was revamped or overhauled, definitely not the roads, But Ukraine...ok....
Strangerland
No idea. It was a clip on the internet.
Strangerland
Interesting to hear the lies they’re telling you on the fake news far right extremist MSM.
Strangerland
Because intelligent people can’t see in hindsight that trump totally colluded with the Russians, right?
zibala
45 minutes spent searching and you couldn't come up with an accurate answer, and instead manufacture "a clip on the internet" response?
Okaaaaayyyy.....
TaiwanIsNotChina
Doesn't change the fact that your team voted against fixing infrastructure before claiming credit for it. Also bottles and buildings are not infrastructure.
Poor baby doesn't have the energy to handle an investigation? Maybe he shouldn't be president. Also result was inconclusive but Helsinki was not.
Biden took care of infrastructure and national security like any non-traitorous president would. My town is full of road construction.
bass4funk
I never mentioned FOX or any conservative new outlet.
Here we go...ROFL!
TaiwanIsNotChina
This is where the government has to be responsible because private companies do a p**s poor job of planning infrastructure and the idiot voter doesn't care until the bridge falls down.
TaiwanIsNotChina
Maybe in Texa*s they returned the money because it would have helped the people.
bass4funk
It does change it because the country was running without the full attention of the President, it severely hindered him, not to mention the constant barrage of attacks he was getting from the establishment, so it absolutely made a difference and he had to move mountains to get funding for various projects.
Give me a break, the left can't even handle basic criticism. They hate women when it comes to transgenders seems they have more rights over biological-born women, but when it comes to Kamala Harris, now we have to respect her as a woman who is Black and Asian. All over the place as usual.
Then don't vote for him if you think so.
So why are the roads and bridges still a mess?
10 million illegals....huh?
like any non-traitorous president would.
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2024-06-11/why-hunter-biden-s-gun-and-tax-trials-are-trouble-for-the-president
Wherever that is, that is one town, so a few million to go...
Seriously, that's your best shot? Lol
TaiwanIsNotChina
Again, poor low energy baby. And what projects was he funding, tax cuts?
Are you under the impression that roads and bridges can be fixed overnight or that there isn't significant disruption while they are being fixed?
Top 20 city in terms of population, so yes, responsible areas are benefiting.
Wouldn't put it past your state with its failing electrical grid.
bass4funk
His tax cuts also included provisions to benefit small businesses and gave them a 20% deduction for pass-through entities. This led some small businesses to reinvest in growth projects, hiring, and expansion, which was a wonderful thing.
No, but you can fix many roads, particularly in the big city areas, that wasn't done under this admin.
Where? Minnesota?
Thanks to Abbott and the GOP listening to the left on how renewables are so good when it's actually the worst, they learned their lesson on that one, never be persuaded by Democrats.
bass4funk
No, because you don't know, you're just speculating as usual.
Who is neutral?
No, and yes on that last one.
deanzaZZR
When a country prioritizes bombs over bridges the results are predictable.
TaiwanIsNotChina
They also blew up the deficit as spending is spending no matter who it goes to.
Oh so they are not smart enough to do their own research? Sounds like a Russian apologist level argument.
TaiwanIsNotChina
When a country prioritizes disinformation campaigns over democracy, the results are China.
deanzaZZR
High speed rail by country:
China - 45,000 kilometers
Spain - 4,000 kilometers
Japan - 3,000 kilometers
USA - 136 kilometers
bass4funk
Liberals tend to just spend more, I mean it’s not your money so who cares, right?
Yes, but it’s kind of funny that all of the left leaning sites speak favorably of renewables and like with now Kamala’s background records it’s now very hard to find anything negative, can’t rely on Google either
No, sounds like, you got caught with your hands in the cookie jar moment.
TaiwanIsNotChina
Yeah, when you have no engineering standards, no environmental standards, and no labor laws, you can build a lot of stuff.
TaiwanIsNotChina
Why did the deficit explode under Bump then? Because his policies are clearly designed to spend on tax cuts.