Sinkhole shuts down East DeKalb Pike and hurts area businesses
KING OF PRUSSIA, Pa. (CBS) -- A large sinkhole shut down all lanes of Route 202 / East DeKalb Pike in King of Prussia and cut off traffic for businesses in the area.
But on Tuesday night, crews made significant progress fixing the massive sinkhole. The sinkhole is filled and now crews have to lay down the pavement.
"There has been a lot of traffic. I go back and forth from work every day and it takes me seven minutes and it looks me almost 20 minutes today," a woman said.
Ryan Francis lives and works in the area. It normally takes him five minutes to get to work at Men's Wearhouse on East DeKalb Pike, near Henderson Road. But Tuesday, it took him 15 minutes. He knows that other commuters likely had it worse.
"Especially if they are going to be there for like 30 minutes normally, that probably means they're going to be there for an hour," he said.
This started with a water main break Monday. Officials with Pennsylvania American Water said crews dug to start the repair and found a sinkhole forming under East DeKalb Pike between Henderson Road and Saulin Boulevard. PennDOT and Upper Merion Township Police shut down the road and diverted traffic.
Jamie Dang owns Shark Cut Barbershop on East DeKalb Pike. She said she normally sees about 100 customers on a Tuesday. That includes children who have fun. But after traffic shut down, she started hearing from parents.
"They really packed all of the kids in the car to come, and they had to turn back around because they couldn't get in because of how the roadblock was and everything," she said.
Two doors down at The Joint Smokehouse, manager Anthony DeBlasio, stood in an empty shop. Still, he urged patience. He said officers were working to keep crews and commuters safe.
"They're really trying to keep people off the road and trying to handle this situation as fast as possible, it seems like," DeBlasio said.
Brad Rudolph of PennDOT said workers were scrambling to re-fill the hole.
"And then, they will put on some kind of like geotechnical mesh which kind of holds it all together, put on the sub-base, and then pave it with like 10 inches of asphalt," Rudolph said.
That is a temporary fix. He said a permanent one will come later, but a full shutdown should not be necessary.
"Then we'll come back, take a lane here and there, not fully closed, but take off a lane here and there, and take out the asphalt and put the concrete back in," Rudolph said.
Rudolph said paving could be complete by 5 a.m. Wednesday, so DeKalb Pike could be open in time for the Wednesday-evening rush.
