Road crews work to reopen I-10 by Friday - Today's News-Herald

Resuming even a limited flow of traffic on Interstate 10 was expected to have taken weeks, but the California Department of Transportation announced Tuesday that the highway will handle traffic again far sooner than originally expected. The flash flood eroded land around several bridges, with the hardest hit crossing Tex Wash, a normally dry gully that swelled with rainfall Sunday amid the kind of sudden, intense storm that can reshape the desert floor. The fast-moving water severely eroded soil under the concrete that anchors one side of the interstate’s westbound span, making it unsafe. The noon Friday reopening was an “aggressive” timetable that required around-the-clock work, said Mike Beauchamp, Caltrans’ head of construction in the region. In light of the damage, some outside engineers said Caltrans may need to adopt tougher design and protection standards for highway bridges, particularly with heavy rains possible in the coming months due to the ocean-warming phenomenon known as El... While El Nino comes and goes periodically, the general warming of the Earth could have longer-term implications for bridges over desert washes. According to the 2014 U. S. National Climate Assessment, a trend toward “increased heavy precipitation events” will continue, even in the Southwest, where rainfall is expected to decrease overall. Source: www.havasunews.com