Monday, 09 June 2008
By AMANDA CHRISTMAN
Staff Writer
A one-block portion of state Route 209 in Lansford will be closed due to the
discovery of a subsidence Saturday.
Lansford Borough Council President Bob Gaughan said signs from the
Pennsylvania Department of Transportation are posted to detour traffic.
Traffic on Route 209, Gaughan said, is being detoured from the state road to
Birch Street for one block and is then looped back to 209.
"It really only affects, literally, one block. So it's an inconvenience but
it's not that everything will be brought to a screeching halt," he said.
Gaughan said the road should be fixed and open to traffic by midday Tuesday,
but he cautioned that could change depending on how road work progresses.
He said the hole on the state road, also known as Patterson Street, was
about 10 inches in diameter when it was discovered. When borough officials
looked into the hole they noticed the void was much bigger underneath the
macadam, Gaughan said.
The oval-shaped hole underground measures about 15 feet by 8 feet, Gaughan
said. Saturday, officials from PennDOT and the borough and employees and the
Lansford-Coaldale Water Authority were on scene to assess the situation.
Borough officials declared it an emergency situation and hired a
Coaldale-based excavator to start work on the street. The move allowed the
borough to bypass state laws, which would require it to seek bids.
Sunday at 7 a.m., the pavement around the void was cut and an excavator was
used to open up the hole to get a better look at the damage, Gaughan said.
Once underneath the pavement, Gaughan said no damages to water lines or a
century-old masonry sewer system were found.
He said starting today stone fill would be hauled in and dumped into the
void. Once the hole is filled, a 4-inch base of macadam will be poured
overtop along with a surface coat. That portion of Route 209 in Carbon
County is heavily traveled and mostly residential, Gaughan said. He said
there is no threat to any homes in the area affected by the subsidence.
The money to fill in the hole, Gaughan said, will probably come out of the
borough's sewer transmission account.
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