NATCHEZ &045;&045; By simply being observant, a Mississippi Department of Transportation crew may have saved the state about a half million dollars, or more.

The crew &045;&045; made up of workers from Natchez, Woodville and Gloster &045;&045; spent Monday trying to fill up a dangerous sinkhole just below a guardrail on John R. Junkin Drive near the Natchez Mall.

&uot;This is a good example of a local crew doing the work and taking care of a problem,&uot; said MDOT Director Larry L. &uot;Butch&uot; Brown, who was observing the work on Monday. &uot;It would take us three weeks just to do the paperwork.&uot;

The slide apparently occurred when two bad pipes collapsed, take dirt with them and creating a steep slope below the guardrail.

So the MDOT crew hauled dirt and riprap &045;&045; made of large rocks and other filler &045;&045; and dumped it into the

Superintendent Bud Vines said he was hoping to finish the work on Monday, but workers might need another day if they could not get all of the material needed to fill the space. One lane of traffic on westbound John R. Junkin was closed near the site while they were working Monday.

Vines said the city’s loess soil &045;&045; a dusty, silt-like soil &045;&045; was again the culprit. It is easily washed away by rain.

&uot;It’s something,&uot; Vines said. &uot;It liquefies whenever it gets wet.&uot;

Vines said his crews know to look for such washed out sites.

&uot;It’s part of our job to look for it and find it,&uot; he said.

This time, finding it and taking care of it may have saved the state some money.

Brown said if the crew had just reported it, the state would have had to bid the project &045;&045; taking precious time.

&uot;We probably saved half a million to a million dollars,&uot; Vines said.