WKU Geologists Present
Research On Road Collapse

September 16, 2003

Bowling Green, Ky. - Western Kentucky University geologists Michael May and Kenneth Kuehn presented "Road Hazard Ahead: The Dishman Lane Karst Collapse, Bowling Green, Kentucky" at the recent Appalachian States Coalition for Geohazards in Transportation Technical Forum.

Marshall University's Appalachian Transportation Institute and the Kentucky Geological Survey hosted the Aug. 7 technical forum at the University of Kentucky.

Dr. May and Dr. Kuehn chronicled the February 2002 collapse of Dishman Lane and conveyed to road builders and bridge builders from Ohio, West Virginia, Kentucky, Virginia and other Appalachian regions the economic importance of integrating geoscience in infrastructure design and construction plans.

Their presentation of aerial, ground-level and subsurface views of the collapse site showed that proper risk assessment and more accurate estimation of project costs depend on precise and accurate information in southcentral Kentucky's karst terrain.

According to Dr. David Keeling, head of Geography and Geology Department, "Research such as this is a critical component of the Department's mission – to identify human-environment problems and to develop policies and applied solutions that help communities solve these problems."

For more information, contact David Keeling at (270) 745-4555. More WKU news is available on the World Wide Web at www.wku.edu. If you'd like to receive WKU news via E-mail, send a message to WKUNews@wku.edu.

-WKU-