Latest news with #NewJerseyDepartmentofTransportation
New York Post
19-05-2025
- Automotive
- New York Post
Stunning new video shows moment massive 1-80 sinkhole first opened in NJ: ‘Never seen anything like this'
A stunning new video shows the moments after a massive sinkhole first swallowed the side of a New Jersey interstate. Police bodycam footage obtained by ABC7 captured the moment cops drove up to the edge of a mammoth sinkhole that opened up on the I-80 in Wharton the day after Christmas Day. The sinkhole, which created a giant crater along the shoulder of the road, has caused a shutdown of the roadway since December. WABC Advertisement 'Look at how far it goes under there… we just went by and said 'holy!'…' a man who witnessed the sinkhole collapse told a trooper in the footage. 'I've never seen anything like this,' another man said while steam appeared to rise from the giant opening. The sinkhole, which created a giant crater along the shoulder of the road, has caused a shutdown of parts of the major roadway since December. Advertisement Repairs have been ongoing since, but two more sinkholes appeared along I-80 in February and March, prolonging closures. 'I've never seen anything like this,' one man said while steam appeared to rise from the giant opening. WABC Officials have linked the formation of the sinkholes to the region's mining history, blaming the collapse of an abandoned mineshaft under the road as the cause, per the outlet. Advertisement The stretch of I-80, which has impacted local commuters and long-distance drivers crossing through New York City, Pennsylvania, Upstate New York, and the Midwest, should be fully operational by the end of June, New Jersey Department of Transportation officials said.
USA Today
21-03-2025
- Automotive
- USA Today
What a mess: Third sinkhole opens up on Interstate 80 in New Jersey, closures ensue
What a mess: Third sinkhole opens up on Interstate 80 in New Jersey, closures ensue Since December, the New Jersey Department of Transportation has reported a 40-foot sinkhole, an 11-foot sinkhole, and most recently, a 15-footer. So what the heck is going on? Show Caption Hide Caption 15-foot sinkhole causes major delays in New Jersey A drilling operation was underway on I-80 in Wharton, New Jersey, when a 15-foot hole opened up, causing traffic to back up. The third sinkhole since December has opened up on Interstate 80 in north New Jersey, adding even more closures and headaches to the region. The 15-by-15-foot sinkhole opened up just after 5 p.m. Wednesday in Morris County, about 25 miles northwest of Newark, according to Steve Schapiro, a spokesperson for the New Jersey Department of Transportation. It opened up in the median in a work zone on eastbound I-80, the department said on its website. The sinkhole is the latest plaguing the state recently, leaving portions of I-80 closed for nearly four months, reported the Bergen Record, part of the USA TODAY Network. According to the department, the two other recent sinkholes reported include: Dec. 26: A 40-by-40-foot sinkhole developed in the right shoulder of eastbound I-80 near milepost 34. Crews worked through the Christmas holiday weekend to repair the sinkhole and had the highway reopened by Dec. 30. Feb. 10: An 11-by-11-foot sinkhole opened on eastbound I-80 at while crews were conducting soil tests. Crews excavated and stabilized the 4-feet-deep sinkhole. The department closed the eastbound lanes in February after the second sinkhole opened, and the latest sinkhole led officials to close the westbound lanes out of caution. Crews worked overnight to stabilize the area around the median after Wednesday's incident. 'It has not yet been determined when I-80 westbound may be safe to reopen,' the department said. Repairs are underway on the latest sinkhole, officials said, adding that New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy declared a state of emergency for Morris County on March 8 for federal funding. Next, officials will apply for emergency federal funding from the Federal Highway Administration. How have officials dealt with the sinkholes? After the sinkhole formed in February, the transportation department immediately began geotechnical testing on eastbound and westbound I-80 to figure out what was happening with the roadway. The department is also drilling and grouting to stabilize eastbound I-80. This phase requires crews to fill holes and small voids, and figure out which areas need the most extensive repairs. The department of transportation has already pinpointed 90 locations on the interstate that need to be assessed due to potential instability, reported the Bergen Record. As of Friday afternoon, crews were in the drilling and grouting phase. Once that's done in mid-April, crews can begin to repair the latest sinkhole. Crews will excavate the area and install a base of large stone with a wire mesh on top, the department said. They will then add more stone and a concrete layer over the wire mesh. Next, they'll do more filling and soil will be placed on top of the concrete and compacted. Several layers of asphalt will then be added. 'Once the repair begins, it is expected to take approximately one month,' the department said. Still to come are: Reopening westbound I-80 Sinkhole repairs Quality assurance testing Monitoring system installation to track surface and underground conditions as part of the repair Milling and paving so drivers have a smooth surface before the lanes reopen Reopening eastbound I-80 The transportation department has listed detours and routes for drivers on I-80 at What causes sinkholes? The three sinkholes formed due to the collapse of an abandoned mineshaft, Schapiro told USA TODAY. Timothy Bechtel, a senior professor of geosciences at undefined in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, told the Bergen Record that most sinkholes are caused by precipitation and begin with a manmade void or a natural cave. He added that sinkholes are a lot like hourglasses. 'When you first flip it over, there's unconsolidated material,' he said. 'There's sand at the top and down below, there's an opening.' Floods and large amounts of rainfall push soil downward, eventually creating a sinkhole at the surface. While the National Weather Service has said that New Jersey has received less overall precipitation than normal over the past year, the storms have been quite intense, reported the Bergen Record. There were also multiple strong earthquakes last spring, although Bechtel said the sinkholes in New Jersey would've developed sooner if the earthquakes were part of the cause. 'Earthquakes can loosen the soil,' he said, but 'I'd expect that they're probably not implicated in these sinkholes.' Saleen Martin is a reporter on USA TODAY's NOW team. She is from Norfolk, Virginia – the 757. Email her at sdmartin@
Yahoo
21-03-2025
- Climate
- Yahoo
Drone Footage Captures Sinkhole Along New Jersey Highway
A new sinkhole along Interstate 80 in Wharton, New Jersey, forced officials to close all westbound lanes until further notice, according to the New Jersey Department of Transportation (NJDOT). The road closure was resulting in significant traffic delays, according to local reports. The 15-by-15-foot sinkhole was reported shortly after 5 pm on March 19, prompting warnings to drivers about the hazard along the freeway. This is the third sinkhole reported on the roadway in recent months. The first was reported in December when a ''significant void'': from old iron mines caused a collapse along the eastbound lanes. A second sinkhole formed in February, reports said. A local historian speaking to radio station NJ101.5 compared the ground in the area to 'Swiss cheese' because of the old mines. Gov Phil Murphy said: 'We will continue to work around the clock so that New Jersey commuters and families get their lives back on track.' Murphy had declared a state of emergency in Morris County two weeks ago to address infrastructure damage. Drone footage of the sinkhole was captured by King Home Inspection Services. As of Friday afternoon, the NJDOT had not provided an update on when the westbound lanes would reopen. Credit: King Home Inspection Services via Storyful
Yahoo
20-03-2025
- Climate
- Yahoo
NJ sinkhole issues continue; what happened on Route 80?
The Route 80 traffic nightmare worsens as a new sinkhole opened up on Interstate 80 Westbound Wednesday evening, now shutting it down in both directions. The eastbound stretch of I-80 through Wharton, New Jersey has been closed since Feb. 10 for repairs after a depression in the road way gave way to an 11-foot by 11-foot sinkhole. The new 15-foot by 15-foot hole opened up in the center median during a drilling operation, according to officials. Both these sinkholes are part of a series, following a previous December 40-foot by 40-foot hole that opened just 75 feet away from the February incident. Officials blamed abandoned mineshafts that collapsed. As of Thursday morning, New Jersey Department of Transportation announced that "all lanes remain closed and detoured at Exit 34 northbound in Wharton due to emergency construction." According to news officials, repairs on the existing sinkholes were expected to have lasted another two months, albeit the timeline is now subject to change and unclear as NJDOT continues to evaluate the new situation. The closure impacts a major artery for commuters in the tri-state area as well as truckers through the state of New Jersey, an east-west transcontinental freeway that crosses the country from the Garden State, through Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Iowa, Nebraska, Wyoming, Utah, Nevada and California. Sinkholes form when underground rock dissolves due to water, creating voids and cavities and then the surface sinks or collapses into them. They can result from seasonal changes such as freeze and thaw of the ground or extremes in precipitation like drought and heavy rain. Sinkholes are all about water causing disturbances of the soil. In the case of the I-80 sinkholes, officials are blaming mineshafts that have collapsed, but attributing them to water nonetheless. "What really causes these sinkholes to open up after such a long amount of time is water," College of New Jersey civil engineering professor Andrew Bechtel said in news reports. "Water probably caused the first sinkhole to collapse. When they filled it, they changed how water moved under I-80. And now they're probably developing a new one in a different place. So the realistic problem is to figure out where all these old mines go, and then fill and cap them and then rebuild the road on top." After the February sinkhole collapse and investigation, NJDOT said they "identified 90 locations to be assessed and mitigate potential instability or possible voids." Maria Francis is a Pennsylvania-based journalist with the Mid-Atlantic Connect Team. This article originally appeared on NJ sinkhole closes Route 80; what we know about Route 80 sink hole
Yahoo
20-03-2025
- Automotive
- Yahoo
Massive new 15-foot sinkhole opens up on troublesome ‘Swiss cheese' New Jersey Interstate 80, detouring all traffic
All lanes on Interstate 80 in New Jersey are being detoured after a 15-by-15-foot sinkhole opened up in the middle of a construction zone on the troublesome, so-called 'Swiss cheese' roadway, officials announced Wednesday. Westbound lanes are being detoured at Exit 34 to Route 15 northbound after the gaping hole swallowed up part of the roadbed, the New Jersey Department of Transportation wrote on X. The sinkhole opened up in the median, near where construction crews were working to fix already existing holes on the eastbound side of the continent-spanning roadway, News12 New Jersey reported. Eastbound lanes in Wharton, Morris County, have been closed for road repairs for the last several months — after sinkholes have been popping up repeatedly due to a 'significant void' that exists just below the surface near Exit 24, officials said. 'The underground is basically Swiss cheese,' William Kroth, executive director of the Sterling Hill Mining Museum, told Pix11 last month. On Monday, the NJ DOT announced that eastbound I-80 lanes would be closed for another two months — with more repairs, and traffic headaches, likely coming in the future. Crews are working to stabilize the area under the roadway by filling holes, loose soil, and small voids while scouting the affected areas for further weak spots, according to the release. Eastbound traffic on I-80 is currently being detoured via Route 10, Route 46, and Exit 34. I-80 stretches 2,900 miles from Teaneck, New Jersey, to San Francisco, California.
