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Road crews work all night to repair stretch of I-215 that buckled due to heat

Posted at 6:48 AM, Jul 07, 2021
and last updated 2021-07-07 08:48:11-04

TAYLOLRSVILLE, Utah — Road crews worked throughout the night to get a section of I-215 open before Wednesday morning’s commute.

A stretch of I-215 west in Taylorsville had buckled due to the extreme heat.

READ: Intense heat causes I-215 road buckling; lanes closed

When crews first got there, the rise was six inches tall, but it kept getting worse, and rose up to ten inches.

“As it's been sitting and we've been sitting here we've watched it rise a couple of inches just in the last few hours,” said Sgt. Mary Kaye Lucas with the Utah Highway Patrol.

Crews used massive concrete cutters to remove the buckled section and then the area was repaved.

“The panels, when they expand when we have an extreme heat wave, the panels they have nowhere to go but up,” said UDOT spokesperson John Gleason.

With temperatures expected to get even hotter Wednesday and stay hot for several more days, drivers are asked to be extremely careful because the roads could buckle at any time.