FARGO, N.D. (Valley News Live) — Persistent heat is doing more than making people break a sweat. It's breaking roads and sidewalks in the metro.
A Valley News Live viewer from West Fargo sent video showing a road broken apart with pieces in the street. Later in the video, sidewalk is elevated off the ground as two pieces of concrete pushed into one another.
This happens because of something called thermal expansion. That's when heat penetrates the pavement or concrete, causing the materials to expand. When they have no place left to go, they do one of two things.
They either buckle and the road breaks apart, like what happened on I-29 in Fargo earlier this week and in that street in West Fargo, or they do what's called “tenting.†That's what the sidewalk is doing in the video.
For those nearby, they can experience a micro-seismic event as the earth gives way due to the heat.
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