By Josephine E. Moore, The Register-Herald
HINTON, W.Va. — It’s been a year and a half since it developed, but nearly all signs of the sinkhole that opened in Hinton along W.Va. 20 have been erased.
With the sinkhole completely filled in and paved over, officials with the state’s Department of Transportation and the Division of Highways say the next step is to install a new culvert to prevent the same issue from recurring.
In an October press release, Joe Pack, WVDOH’s chief engineer of operations, described the project, called the Hinton Brier Branch Culvert, as a “permanent fix.”
“This will be a permanent rerouting of the stream and a closure of the old drainage structure,” Pack said in the release.
According to District 9 Engineer Jim Moore, the Hinton Brier Branch Culvert project was awarded to Orders Construction Company Inc. for $4,249,398 on Sept. 28.
“The project will bore-and-jack 320’ of new 72” diameter culvert parallel to the failing culvert, construct headwalls on the new culvert, then use flowable grout to fill and stabilize the failing culvert,” Moore said.
Moore said the contractor was on site Dec. 27 for preliminary field exploration work and is expected to begin this week.
The scheduled completion date is summer 2024, weather pending.
Hinton Mayor Jack Scott said he’s especially pleased to have the roadway reopened to two-lane traffic.
