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Thursday, April 7, 2005
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Huge sinkhole opens
and MATT ERICKSON But where did all the sand go?
As motorists were driving home from work late Wednesday afternoon, a huge sinkhole opened up in the inside, eastbound lane of Highway 210 about a block west of Gillis Avenue just south of the Franklin Junior High School athletic fields.
Eastbound motorists in the outside lane gawked as they drove by the empty crater. The hole was nearly as wide as the inside lane, about 4 feet long and nearly 10 feet deep. But the hole was empty except for some tar that fell in. The missing sand even stumped police officers who were called to the scene to prevent motorists from crashing into the hole.
What happened to cause the sinkhole, and what happened to the sand, were unknown late Wednesday. A stormwater pipe runs through a portion of the sinkhole but it appeared intact. City Engineer Jeff Hulsether said it wasn't clear whether the stormwater pipe, which connects catch basins on either side of Washington Street, or a box culvert with sanitary and storm sewer piping 50 feet below caused the sinkhole.
And though it rained Tuesday, Hulsether didn't believe it caused the sinkhole.
"I don't think any single event did," Hulsether said. "We're looking at it as something that probably was occurring over a period of time and finally failed."
Had she traveled by a few seconds later, Sara Christensen, Brainerd, might have found herself hung up in the hole.
Christensen said she was driving along when she heard a thunk. She may have hit the sinkhole as it was developing. The front left tire of her 1996 Toyota Camry immediately went flat and her alignment likely will need some work. She was able to stop her vehicle in the left turn lane at the Gillis and Washington intersection.
A few minutes later, she walked back to look at the sinkhole.
"It's huge," she said as she peered into the hole. "My whole car could have ended up in there. How did that ever happen?"
Driving behind Christensen, Terry Anderson of Brainerd didn't have time to stop for the sinkhole.
"All of the sudden, there it is. If I had tried to stop, my momentum would have carried me in," Anderson said. "So I punched it and managed to get across."
Anderson figured the sinkhole was about 5 feet in width, allowing the 6-foot wheel base of his full-size pickup to catch the asphalt on the edges of the hole. Still, crossing the sinkhole jolted his pickup, he said.
"We're lucky we were wearing our (seat) belts, otherwise the kids would have been bouncing around the back like pingpong balls," Anderson said. He said he wasn't sure if his vehicle was damaged by crossing the sinkhole.
Hulsether said city utility crews would fill the hole and block off the inside eastbound lane of Washington Street Wednesday night. He said the Minnesota Department of Transportation would be investigating the problem Thursday.
KATHI NAGORSKI can be reached at kathi.nagorski@brainerddispatch.com or 855-5855.
MATT ERICKSON can be reached at matt.erickson@brainerddispatch.com or 855-5857.
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