A “significant void” sits just below the pavement of a New Jersey highway that’s been beset by random sinkholes over the last few months — and state officials say it may take a while to repair.
The New Jersey Department of Transportation has closed Interstate 80’s eastbound lanes in the Morris County town of Wharton twice in the last three months after reports that the ground was falling away.
In one of those instances, a mammoth sinkhole the size of a four-story building opened up on the highway shoulder in December, closing lanes for nearly four days while workers scrambled to fix it.
Now, officials say they’ve figured out why this keeps happening — a void exists just below the surface of the roadbed near Exit 34, according to NBC 4 New York.
“After finishing the initial testing, the good news is there are no immediate concerns about the stability of I-80 westbound,” Transportation Commissioner Fran O’Connor said, according to The Record.
“The bad news is a significant void was identified underneath the center lane of I-80 eastbound, which will require an extensive and robust repair. It is going to take some time to design a repair that will ensure the long-term integrity and safety of the roadway,” he said.
“It is important that we act now to make lasting repairs, so we don’t have to come back any time soon.”
At first, state officials said the damage from a Feb. 10 depression — which sank about five inches into the ground — would take around three weeks to fix, CBS News reported.
But now state officials don’t know how long the work will take, or when the lanes can reopen.
Officials added that there are about 135 potential voids in the area, which is laden with abandoned mineshafts.
One such collapsed mine caused the big December sinkhole.
“The underground is basically Swiss cheese,” William Kroth, executive director of the Sterling Hill Mining Museum, told PIX11 at the time.
Crews are drilling and grouting the ground to stabilize the road, according to NBC.
They’ll keep working around the clock until the work is finished.
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