BREMEN — Sunday’s hot weather created a repeat problem on a busy stretch of road in southern Mishawaka.

Bremen Highway buckled again between Ireland Road and Dragoon Trail for the second time in a month. This time the county had to fix two buckles instead of one. The county claims that this concrete pavement will hold up better under truck traffic and that it’s easier to repair. But the people who live around there are tired of their street being closed off.

“We pay taxes and it’s not fixed,” said neighbor, Ismar Perez.

The county repaved Bremen Highway in 2007. For the first few years there weren’t any problems. In the past 14 months, neighbors say it’s buckled three times.

“They say it’s easier to fix but if it happens even more than once in a couple years it’s almost not worth fixing. Might as well just put a new road down,” said neighbor, Sean Branstetter.

Officials with the county say this is pretty normal.

“They say it’s easier to fix but if it happens even more than once in a couple years it’s almost not worth fixing. Might as well just put a new road down,” said President with the Board of Commissioners, Andy Kostielney.

The neighbors we spoke to say they’d prefer asphalt but the county says this was the better option.

“At the time it was less expensive than what an asphalt road would have been and the asphalt road, with as heavy of truck traffic is on there, every five or six years they had to go in and repave it,” said Kostielney.

But neighbors say they are getting tired of that answer.

“Use better material to fix it because they fixed it before and it keeps on happening,” said Perez.

Crews were already out working on the latest set of buckles. A supervisor says the Concrete Institute has been here to figure out why there’s been so many more buckles. They haven’t gotten back with an answer yet.

Kostielney says the road should be open again Wednesday.

Source: WSBT