Please pray for me and mine, I drive highway 89

[Lucille]

I'm thinking we won't be boating much, if at all, at Lake Powell this summer.

N. Arizona highway closed due to pavement buckle
http://www.azfamily.com/news/N-Arizona-highway-closed-due-to-pavement-buckle-192033001.html


PAGE, Ariz. (AP) -- A stretch of U.S. 89 in northern Arizona is closed in both directions because of a pavement problem about 25 miles south of Page.

The Arizona Department of Transportation says traffic will detour around the closure by using U.S. 160 and State Route 98, adding 45 miles of driving.

Northbound traffic on U.S. 89 can't go past U.S. 89A, which takes traffic west toward Jacob Lake. Southbound traffic on U.S. 89 can't go past the junction with State Route 98 in Page.

ADOT says what caused a 150-foot section of pavement to buckle shortly after 5:30 a.m. is not related to the weather and might be what ADOT calls a "geologic event."

According to ADOT, it isn't known how long the stretch of U.S. 89 will remain closed south of Page.

"It'll probably be an extended closure," Graves said, advising drivers to postpone their trips is they can. I imagine ADOT will be working on that for quite awhile."

ADOT crews are on scene and are deploying geotechnical engineers to investigate

http://ksaz.images.worldnow.com/images/21285159_BG2.jpg

http://ksaz.images.worldnow.com/images/21285159_BG1.jpg

[acptulsa]

In before someone blames this on HAARP.

[fr33]

"But who will (re)build the roads??!!"

[kathy88]

Every road and bridge in this country was built by the lowest government bidder. FUCKING SCARY if you think about it.

[donnay]

I will keep you and yours in my prayers. Our infrastructure is going to hell and has been for years.

[donnay]

"But who will (re)build the roads??!!"


Foreign investors! :mad:

[Brian4Liberty]

Looks like a simple landslide or sink hole. Should be easy to fix.

Edit: of course repairs on remote highways like that take years of bureaucratic nonsense.

[ronpaulfollower999]

Every road and bridge in this country was built by the lowest government bidder. FUCKING SCARY if you think about it.

I believe Obama said their are 70,000 bridges that failed their last inspection, or something like that.

[kathy88]

I believe Obama said their are 70,000 bridges that failed their last inspection, or something like that.

Hey I know. Why don't we bring some troops home to fix them? Naaa..... too easy.

[acptulsa]

Hey I know. Why don't we bring some troops home to fix them? Naaa..... too easy.

We have plenty of people to fix them. What the adventurism is doing is soaking up the money we need to fix them.

But, hey. This is a 'democracy', so obviously the American People want foreign bridges destroyed more than we want our own bridges to be safe.

[mad cow]

Wow.It looks like it hadn't been that long since it had been repaved either.

[jdmyprez_deo_vindice]

State road leading out of my town just recently failed. It was not as severe as this but the pavement literally just started crumbling overnight and the SHA just threw their hands up and said "I dunno" when pressed for an explanation. Instead of doing something they went out and bought multi thousand dollar signs to place to tell people the road sucks and they should probably not drive on it.

[Natural Citizen]

Hey I know. Why don't we bring some troops home to fix them? Naaa..... too easy.

Yeah. Right. Complete with a military checkoint every other mile. Have you seen the ones they do overseas? They're a hoot. We got a good preview of inspections when they burned out whatisface last week. Think bout what you're asking for.

Something less discussed is the fact that engineering and building these roads and bridge projects are a large part of certain elements of the S.T.E.M. program that our American students are now engaged in. It's not really premised upon Asians and IT departments as much as it has been the popular meme to promote that dialect.

Anyhoo. These things are going to happen where roads are built in these particular areas. Is a natural science.

OP, Good luck in your tavels though regardless of all of the other spew.

[tod evans]

Had to chuckle at Andy and Barney looking over the situation....

Repairing that takes work guys, run the other way...(Well waddle..)

[Lucille]

They say it was a landslide. The drop-off over that guard rail freaks me out every time (and it's gonna be even worse now). But it's so beautiful, I have to look. From what I can make out, it looks like it happened at the 2:03 mark:


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7X5jMGsRlgM

http://lh6.ggpht.com/-BgGC1DQ9zcU/TeOumKVao6I/AAAAAAAAIrw/yawHBbX209w/s1600-h/07EchoCliffswithSR89innotchfromSR89A%25255B1%25255 D.jpg

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-npXdKZfkJtU/USUTYPPe5CI/AAAAAAAAPMg/CHjjsyZg4Is/s1600/US89+2-20-13+google+earth+view.jpg

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-q_sOe57Xqp8/USUP42ZoQVI/AAAAAAAAPKo/gw4bXWPgyZ8/s1600/US89+2-20-13+Ron+Schott+Creative+Commons+flickr.JPG

http://arizonageology.blogspot.com/

View from the road facing west:

http://lh4.ggpht.com/-92IK9-Dp1aI/Tt-kr34NRaI/AAAAAAAAK8A/iG6feMuz31c/s512/08-Kaibab-Plateau-Vermilion-Cliffs--%25255B2%25255D.jpg?imgmax=800

[BSU kid]

Foreign investors! :mad:

Better that then more government dimwits. :cool:

[Lucille]

Genius to build a highway on an ancient landslide, no? They built 89 to Page in the 50s, and had to hurry up so they could get going on building Glen Canyon Dam.

I confess I'm ambivalent about Lake Powell. It's so beautiful, but they say Glen Canyon (http://explorepdx.com/glen.html) was more amazing than the Grand, the canyon's and the downriver ecosystem was changed and/or destroyed, and so much history was buried under the water.


Stewart Udall: I've always had regrets. You know, Senator Goldwater startled a lot of people when he finished his term and they asked, "Senator is there any vote that you regret?" And he said, "Glen Canyon Dam (http://www.azpbs.org/arizonastories/ppedetail.php?id=80.)."

Edward Abbey's Glen Canyon Dam shenanigan: http://www.sacredland.org/glen-canyon-damn/

[Lucille]

A better view facing west:


It is one of the most scenic roads (http://earthly-musings.blogspot.co.uk/2013/02/massive-earth-slump-closes-highway-89.html) in all the state of Arizona.

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-8VYo9gUhZt4/USY87q81m_I/AAAAAAAAHLA/ZhdNAkBrgKs/s640/Marble+Platform+Vista.jpg
[...]
Some have also said that maybe the "slump route" may be abandoned. Not likely.The road is too scenic and too direct for that, and engineers these days rarely say, "We give up". Look for a massive stabilization project on this slope, very similar to that undertaken on the Mesa Verde approach road in southwestern Colorado. Here huge portions of the Cretaceous Mancos Shale have often slipped, yet the National Park Service has completed very expensive and a well-engineered solution there (see here). ADOT will do the same here and we will be able to one day travel this great road again. However, this slope will also one day again slide downhill as it has for at least the last several hundred thousand years.


http://tucsoncitizen.com/wryheat/files/2013/02/89-slump-550x437.jpg

In the photo, notice the white rock just above the red line and just below the yellow line. This is the Navajo Sandstone. This photo shows an ancient landslide that slid from the red line to the yellow line with displacement of about 250 feet. This occurred sometime before the highway was built in the 1950s. The highway goes along the toe of the ancient landslide, a very unstable position. It was this area than failed in the last few days.

This photo reminds me of a class in Engineering Geology on where NOT to build roads (http://tucsoncitizen.com/wryheat/2013/02/21/photos-and-video-of-highway-89-slump-near-page-arizona/). It will be interesting to see how the Arizona Highway Department repairs the road. Will they build it along the toe of the ancient landslide again, or will they make a very expensive rerouting?

UPDATES from Arizona Geological Survey:

ADOT seeking federal funds to repair US89 from landslide damage

Bitter Spring landslide extends downslope from US89 Includes new video

Bitter Spring landslide complex known since 1901


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lo7GHtpP5g4