Update: MDOT crews working to inspect sinkhole near hospital
Published 12:00 am Wednesday, August 13, 2014
Mississippi Department of Transportation employees move safety barriers around a sinkhole in the exit lane of John R. Junkin Drive to US-61 South Wednesday. (Sam Gause / The Natchez Democrat)
NATCHEZ — Mississippi Department of Transportation crews are inspecting a sinkhole nearly 15 feet wide and 25 feet deep that developed Tuesday night inside the right turning lane of U.S. 61 in front of Natchez Regional Medical Center.
“We are treating it as an emergency,” said MDOT District 7 Engineer Albert White. “We are thankful and grateful no one got hurt.”
The City of Natchez notified White of the sinkhole around 7:30 p.m. Tuesday.
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- Mississippi Department of Transporation employee David Brown talks on the phone behind the sinkhole on the exit lane from John R. Junkin Drive to US-61 South Tuesday. The sinkhole started as a small depression in the road earlier Tuesday and continued to get larger through the evening. One lane of traffic was open exiting onto the southbound lanes of U.S. 61 and one lane was open in the road exiting into Tracetown Shopping Center. (Sam Gause / The Natchez Democrat)
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- Mississippi Department of Transportation workers examine a sinkhole on the exit lane from John R. Junkin Drive to US-61 south Tuesday. (Sam Gause / The Natchez Democrat)
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- Mississippi Department of Transportation workers examine a sinkhole on the exit lane from John R. Junkin Drive to US-61 south Tuesday. (Sam Gause / The Natchez Democrat)
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- A Mississippi Department of Transportation worker flashes a light into a sinkhole on the exit lane from John R. Junkin Drive to US-61 south Tuesday. (Sam Gause / The Natchez Democrat)
White said repairs to the road will take several weeks, but construction cannot start until he is sure the sinkhole is no longer growing.
The source of the hole is still unknown, White said, until work teams can get to the bottom of the hole safely.
“We think it was an existing pipe put in when the road was originally build,” White said. “But we won’t know the exact cause until we remove everything.”
White said sinkholes often happen when soil erodes above broken pipes. The pipe on U.S. 61 is nearly 30 feet underground, and those types of sinkholes are not easy to detect with cameras.
“These things are hard to see, you can’t really see them because they are so far underground,” White said. “And some of these systems you can’t get a camera to them. In this situation you have a lot of inlets, connections and turn in the pipe. You can’t get the camera into those sections.”
White said MDOT crews had rerouted traffic only slightly today to ensure motorists stay clear of the sinkhole.
Traffic would need to be rerouted, White said, once construction beings.
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