Sinkhole forms at Centre sheriff’s department
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BELLEFONTE -- The Centre County Commissioners approved the emergency repair of the sinkhole at the Centre County Sheriff's Department.
The property has a history of sinkholes and depressions in the parking lot, and County Administrator John Franek expressed an interest in solving the issue as soon as possible.
"We really want to get in there and get ahead of this before there would be a more significant impact to the area," said Franek.
The commissioners unanimously approved a contract with CMT Labs for engineering services; CMT also recommended LandServ to ultimately do the repair and exploratory work.
The $70,500 maximum contract is an "absolute worst case scenario" amount, and they are not expecting it to cost that much, Franek said.
"Until we get in there we don't know to what extent. They are expecting to have to open up an area that is 20 feet (wide), 20 feet (long) and 20 feet (deep.) (They're) hoping to hit bedrock before they get to that depth," he said.
The commissioners also approved an agreement with CMT Labs to provide engineering services for the emergency repair to be billed on an hourly rate of $150.
Chairman Mark Higgins commented on how small the opening of the sinkhole is, mentioning that a 10 foot pole was stuck inside to test the depth but hadn't touched the bottom.
"When the engineer went out and looked at it, it was a very small opening. If you look in further it kind of fans out and it's a much bigger opening underneath. It's right in the travel lane. With vehicles coming in, it could be a problem. Especially with the weather that we're having around here lately with the severity of the storms, we felt it best just to close it off and cover that up to try to keep it from further eroding," said Franek.
"(We) give our compliments to the County Engineer," said Higgins. "We've had a couple of quick turnaround projects the last couple of weeks."
The parking lot is currently cleared and not being used until the repair is completed, but the Sheriff's Office is still open. The building is located at 213 E. High Street, Bellefonte.