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A 20 foot wide sinkhole has opened up in a field right near Highway 127, and local residents say that it is still growing.Photo by WRCB-TV Channel 3 /Chattanooga Times Free Press.
Crews will begin work today to repair a sinkhole near U.S. Highway 127 in Bledsoe County’s Cold Springs community, according to officials.
Tennessee Department of Transportation spokeswoman Jennifer Flynn said the hole — which Bledsoe County Mayor Bobby Collier said is now about 20 feet wide and 30 feet deep — will be repaired with rock. Crews will use increasingly smaller rocks as the hole is filled in until it’s shored up and flush with the surface again, she said.
“They hope to be finished today,” Flynn said in an email.
No cause has been determined for the sinkhole, located north of Pikeville and first examined by TDOT officials on Wednesday, Flynn said.
“Usually [sinkholes] are caused by water, either from man-made sources (leaking pipes) or natural sources (underground springs, heavy rain),” Flynn said.
She said the sinkhole poses no danger to the highway.
For more details, see tomorrow’s Times Free Press.
Ben Benton is a news reporter at the Chattanooga Times Free Press. He covers Southeast Tennessee and previously covered North Georgia education. Ben has worked at the Times Free Press since November 2005, first covering Bledsoe and Sequatchie counties and later adding Marion, Grundy and other counties in the northern and western edges of the region to his coverage. He was born and raised in Cleveland, Tenn., a graduate of Bradley Central High School. Benton ...
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