Photo by Laura Skelding

After heavy rain Monday night, a section of asphalt caved in on John R. Junkin Drive just east of the Mississippi River Bridge. Mississippi Department of Transportation District Engineer Hugh Long was on the scene to coordinate efforts to begin repairing the hole. Long said the hole had been forming under the asphalt for several years, and the soil had caved in and drained out through a leak in a pipe. The weight of the asphalt caused the thin layer of red clay to collapse underneath it.