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Christian County Hiring Company to Test Size of Tracker Road Sinkhole
By
KSPR News
Story Created:
May 13, 2010 at 5:32 PM CDT
Story Updated:
May 13, 2010 at 5:35 PM CDT
A sinkhole will keep a busy Christian County road closed for months. County commissioners held an emergency meeting Thursday to decide what they’ll do to fix the growing problem. Commissioners say they want to make sure they fix the problem without creating another sinkhole down the road.
They plan to spend between $15,000-$20,000 to investigate the size of the sinkhole and to gauge the potential for more sinkholes nearby.
Engineers from Great River Associates placed a remote camera down inside the sinkhole. They found utility lines and crumbling dirt walls.
The sinkhole is about two feet in diameter at the surface and about ten feet in diameter at the base. County crews monitored another sinkhole west of the new sinkhole for years. Christian County Road Foreman Brent Young says the first sinkhole grew from two to thirty feet in diameter.
“We don’t know where it begins and where it ends,” Christian County Engineer Spencer Jones said. "Basically we got to dig 30 feet down and start building up the roadway from the existing bed rock."
Jones says if the county fills the sinkholes without further testing it may cause another sinkhole to form to the east or west of Tracker Road. "We can get a better idea of the extent of what it's going to cost to repair it," Jones said. "Then we don't open ourselves up to an unknown cost."
The county will take three bids and choose one company to test using sound waves. "To utilize sound waves to penetrate into the ground and come back to a sensor to give you a sonar vision of what’s underneath the surface," Great River Associates Engineer King Coltrin said.
Christian County Commissioners plan to meet Monday to discuss funding options for testing and construction.
Click on our video report to hear from a farmer who runs cattle near the sinkholes.
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