The pavement on a busy Jackson highway buckled this past weekend as temperatures reached 102 degrees.

Both lanes of northbound Mississippi 18 in west Jackson were shut down Sunday afternoon after the pavement lifted and cracked.

Donald Walsh, maintenance supervisor for the state Department of Transportation, said that while buckling roads are common during stretches of hot weather, there is no way to predict which roads will buckle. The problem can occur any time temperatures climb over 90 degrees, he said.

“Water sometimes gets beneath the joints of the concrete, and when its hot like this, the water expands, causing the road to buckle,” Walsh said.

Walsh said crews would be working through the night to fix the highway.

The National Weather Service in Jackson is forecasting high temperatures of 100 degrees or above through Thursday.