Whitfield County Public Works crews went out Monday morning thinking they were going to repair a small hole in the middle of Underwood Road, probably caused by a loose cross drain pipe underneath the pavement.
Once they began work, though, they discovered that a long, slow washout had been hidden under the pavement, probably for years.
They discovered the situation before the road collapsed into what turned out to be a five-foot-deep sinkhole.
The road will be closed for the rest of this week for repairs, according to Public Works Director DeWayne Hunt.
“We’ll begin replacement as soon as all utilities have been marked,” Mr. Hunt said Monday morning. “This has occurred over several years – it’s not a recent incident.”
Mr. Hunt believes the problem could have been aided by a leak in the 12-inch water main along the east side of the road through the years, and water may have followed stump holes and roots wrapped around the water main. Various tunnels lead away from the hole on the inlet end.
County crews plan to repair the problem by replacing the metal drain pipe with a concrete pipe, then repave that section of Underwood, with the road slated to be open again by Friday or sooner.
The road had been repaved last year, but the damage was not discovered at that time since it was hidden under the ground and there were no signs of a problem.
"We didn’t replace the tile at that time because the existing tile has no damage and still has most of the coating on it,” Mr. Hunt said. “There was no washout on either end of the tile and no visible sediment on the outlet end to match the loss under the road.”
A sinkhole being repaired on Underwood Road in Whitfield.