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Durwood Graham- District Engineer, District 3
“It is an emergency and we need to get the road back open.”
SECTIONS OF SEVERAL MAJOR HIGHWAYS AND STATE ROUTES THROUGHOUT MISSISSIPPI ARE LINED WITH ORANGE BARRELS AND ROAD CLOSED SIGNS.
ACROSS THE STATE–THE MISSISSIPPI DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION IS BATTLING NEARLY A DOZEN LANDSLIDES AND THAT NUMBER COULD GO UP AS THE WEATHER KEEPS CHANGING.
ALTHOUGH THOUSANDS ARE AFFECTED BY THESE SLIDES MANY DON’T KNOW WHAT THEY ARE–SO WHAT EXACTLY IS A LANDSLIDE?
WELL A LANDSLIDE CAN HAPPEN WHEN HEAVY RAINS SATURATE THE GROUND–CAUSING IT TO SOFTEN–ONCE THIS HAPPENS GRAVITY THEN CAN CAUSE THE GROUND AND WHATEVER ROADWAY MAY BE ON TOP OF IT TO SHIFT…
SOME SLIDES COME WITHOUT WARNING, WHILE OTHERS TAKE LONGER TO FORM–ALLOWING CREWS TO TAKE THE NECESSARY PRECAUTIONS TO HOPEFULLY STOP A LANDSLIDE FROM FORMING–DURWOOD GRAHAM IS THE DISTRICT ENGINEER FOR DISTRICT 3 HIS CREWS TRIED TO PREVENT *THIS SLIDE* FROM HAPPENING.
Durwood Graham- District Engineer, District 3
“When we first noticed it moving we came in and actually brought our asphalt crew in, and we actually paved over what at that time was a little bitty slide looking scarp, and it moved again so we brought a crack sealing crew in and tried to seal all the cracks in it to keep it from going down in the roadway.”
BUT DESPITE THEIR BEST EFFORTS, SOMETIMES MOTHER NATURE HAS HER OWN PLAN.THE NEXT STEP IS TO CLOSE THAT SECTION OF ROADWAY–THEN HAVE THE FEDERAL HIGHWAY ADMINISTRATION INSPECT THE AREA.
Durwood Graham- District Engineer, District 3
“It will then go through the emergency process, it’ll have like a 5 day proposal period.”
GEOTECH ENGINEERS WILL ALSO SURVEY THE AREA TO SEE HOW DEEP THE SLIDE IS…ONCE ALL OF THAT IS SQUARED AWAY THE WORK CAN BEGIN.
Durwood Graham- District Engineer, District 3
“Once we get it under contract the repair will be the least amount of time we’ve spent anywhere as far as the whole process is concerned.”
AS FOR THE POSSIBILITY OF SLIDES IN THE FUTURE…
Durwood Graham- District Engineer, District 3
“The soil types and the way we build highways in Mississippi, you’ll never never stop having slides it’ll always be here.”
BUT SO WILL MDOT…FOR MDOT I’M KATEY ROH.
