Road work ahead after storms
BY JAK KROUSE
Thanks to the work of highway and emergency crews, no serious injuries resulted after Adirondack roadways, bridges and dams were damaged from extreme rainfall in July. But such events will continue and trouble will follow unless action is taken, a researcher warns.
“We’re seeing catastrophic flooding and we’re going to see more road failures,” said Erik Backus, who teaches civil engineering at Clarkson University. “How to deal with that is a significant thing we need to consider going forward.”
Across the Adirondacks and other parts of New York, great volumes of water blew apart culverts, fast-cutting channels stripped roads of supporting foundation and soil.
Roads are built to withstand
