NELSONVILLE, Ohio (AP) - Ohio’s transportation department is planning to fill a vacant coal mine that’s causing a 1-mile stretch of a heavily used highway in southeast Ohio to sag a bit.
The dip is so slight on U.S. Route 33 that motorists might not feel it and engineers say there’s no immediate danger to drivers, but the mine voids could eventually cause the stretch of pavement in Athens County to collapse if they’re left unfilled, The Columbus Dispatch reported (https://bit.ly/1SEb8yM).
“We don’t believe there is an immediate risk,” project engineer Andy Moreland said. “We are still periodically monitoring the movement of the roadway.”
The plan is set to begin this summer and calls for workers to drill 40-60 feet down in and pump in a mixture of cement, fly ash, sand and gravel to fill the voids. The estimated $4.5 million project is expected to be finished in 2017.
The work will close the right lane on the westbound side of the highway this summer and next year’s work will close both westbound lanes.
The project has been in the works since Moreland, a geotechnical engineer with the transportation department, felt the dip as he drove in the westbound lanes of the highway just south of the Nelsonville bypass.
The transportation department has found and filled four other abandoned mines beneath state highways over the last eight years, according to records.
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Information from: The Columbus Dispatch, https://www.dispatch.com
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