Bumps in the road

[warreng88]

Ok, I am not talking about pot holes, I am talking about the divots on streets, mostly around street lights. They are very prominent on 23rd street east and west bound on either side of Classen and Western, around the entire NW 36th and Western intersection and all sides of the NW 63rd and Western intersection. Does anyone know what causes this? Is it bad materials? Bad installation? Both? Other?

[Mel]

They might be there to get the driver to look up from his phone before he gets into an intersection. Like the rumble strips on the side of Highways for when you are drifting.

[TheTravellers]

Possibly it's when intersections are reconstructed/resurfaced and the roads leading up to it aren't? Or the intersection is concrete and street is asphalt (or vice versa) like the bridge on NW 164th between Western and Santa Fe (I think that's where it is) where the eastbound rightmost lane has a huge one where the bridge meets the road? Or just crappy construction?

[Paseofreak]

Most on 23rd Street near Classen are caused by localized failure (cracking) that allowed more than normal amounts of water to pool beneath the pavement. When the water freezes it pops out the cracked area. It's a maintenance issue. However, there is a particularly bad one in the right eastbound lane east of Classen that is the result of a poorly installed patch that has consolidated in front of a manhole. Man, that one will completely bottom out the suspension!

[Snowman]

I am not sure if this is what you are talking about but when they reworked 23rd's surface they apparently adjusted the overall height of the roadbed in a lot of spots, this made some of the utility access cover up or down to what seems like maybe an inch above or below grade depending on what they did in that area.

[rezman]

A lot of it is caused by the weight of vehicles, combined with the torque and friction from the thousands of wheels that apply forces from acceleration and braking. This is epspecially true during the hot summer months when asphalt gets softer. You may also notice that at some intersections, the wide stop line and crosswalk lines are also distorted from this process. The asphalt is literally being moved and reformed over time.

Same thing at the areas mentioned above where the asphalt meets the concrete. Both materials have different compositions and expansion rates.

I've even seen instances during hot temperatures, when car came to a stop at an intersection, and while sitting, the hot tires stuck to the pavement. When the car took off, the tires ripped up strips of the asphalt.