Sinkhole has residents concerned about safety

September 24, 2003|by CANDICE BOSELY

It opened up a couple of weeks ago and has been eating truckload after truckload of gravel since then.

Residents nearby are worried about what dangers lie within the 130-foot-deep sinkhole off Hack Wilson Way.

Pat Arnold, a substitute teacher who lives in one of the two dozen townhouses around the sinkhole, said he worries about the hole because of all the children in the neighborhood.

They skateboard and play basketball in a parking lot adjacent to the hole, which Arnold estimates is no more than 10 or 15 feet across. Underneath sunny skies Tuesday afternoon, several children wearing backpacks walked past the sinkhole on their way home from school.

Using headlamps and rappelling equipment, several people went into the hole recently to map it, said Danny Clark, Berkeley County administrator for the Division of Highways.

Information about the hole still is being gathered. Eventually, the data will be turned over to officials in Charleston, W.Va., who will decide whether to fill the hole or build a land bridge over it, Clark said.

He tried to ease the fears of residents.

"There shouldn't be anybody worried about anything," Clark said. "All of Berkeley and Jefferson County is caverns."

The sinkhole first appeared a couple of weeks ago and has since gotten bigger. It may now be the biggest in the area, Clark said.

To prevent anyone from falling into it, steel plates were placed over the hole's opening. Plastic over the plates and dirt piled up should keep water out, he said.

"DANGER KEEP OFF" is written in orange spray paint on a piece of plywood thrown on top of the dirt.

Just before the entrance to nearby Berkeley Heights Elementary School, Hack Wilson Way has been closed because of the sinkhole. Between the hole itself and the dirt piled around it, one lane of the road was covered.

Yellow tape surrounds the entire area.

Although Clark said the hole is not a straight shaft downward, he could not say whether it extends underneath the townhouses.

If it does, people need to know that, said Arnold, who rents his home. Others own theirs.

"It could be underneath this whole apartment complex," Arnold said. "We don't know if they're going to come to our door and say you all have to get out.

"They've been known to swallow up houses," Arnold said of sinkholes. "Are we going to cave in here?"

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