Louisiana’s roads are notoriously awful, so awful that drivers comment on the changes they can see not far after crossing state lines.
The cracks and potholes have become a bit of a joke for locals who know how to navigate them. However, the repair costs can add up due to the faulty roads, and no one's laughing at that.
Norma Jean Mattei is a Professor of Engineering at UNO and a former president of the American Society of Civil Engineers. She spoke to WWL’s Tommy Tucker about why Louisiana seems so uniquely prone to crumbling roads.
“The Mississippi River created a giant alluvial plain, so we’re not blessed with bedrock here,” explains Mattei. “It’s not just the pavement on top. You have to prepare the subsurface because the roadway needs a bed on which it can sit,” Mattei goes on to say.
Ultimately, she blames heat, Louisiana’s weather cycles, and the soil table as factors for deteriorating roads.
So, what is the science behind the cracks we all have to drive over?
“It’s all a function of when things get hot, they want to expand. When they can’t expand, things like buckling can happen. When we get into higher summer temperatures and the temperature increases so quickly that something gives, in pavement that tends to be a concrete slab that buckles,” adds Mattei.