How extreme heat changes our cities
July’s record-breaking heat is overtaxing power grids and pushing cooling systems to the brink of failure. But high temperatures are also taking a toll on other forms of infrastructure, including bridges, train tracks and roads, which are melting, cracking — and literally bumping up fuel consumption and vehicle-maintenance costs in turn. “Most of our existing infrastructure was designed based on temperature averages 60 to 80 years ago,” an infrastructure expert tells The Wall Street Journal. Yet even new construction isn’t immune: Some builders are adding buckets of ice to concrete and mortar to help it set without melting and shifting.
- Also vulnerable to extreme heat: glues that hold pipes together; metals used in construction; and construction joints on bridges, which can expand in high temperatures.
- The heat wave hitting Texas, Florida and parts of the West is spreading across much of the country this week.