By COLE REIF
Great Bend Post
Great Bend City Administrator Kendal Francis joked that for a moment the city had a ski ramp at the 17th Street and Harrison intersection.
On
July 6, city crews noticed the road buckled and started to rise
due to the heat. A few days later, the street raised another six to eight inches.
In July 2015, the same intersection buckled from the heat causing the concrete
to push against itself.
There is a sanitary sewer manhole just north of the buckled area on Harrison.
Francis wanted to make sure the hot temperatures caused the road to rise, and not an underlying issue causing the problem.
"I wanted to make certain first there wasn't damage to that manhole," said Francis. "I also wanted to make certain we didn't have some other issue, related to that, causing deterioration under the base. From every indication, we think it's just the movement of the concrete."
City staff has torn out the concrete and will include expansion joints as they
re-pour the cement. The expansion joints will help alleviate some of the
pressure as the concrete moves.
