Pleasant Valley Road was paved over last week. The spray painted word “bump” that warned drivers to slow down was still present. The Division of Highways allowed traffic to compact the rocks that filled the mine shaft.
PLEASANT VALLEY — A road that had collapsed due to an old mine shaft has been “capped” with asphalt.
County Route 64, locally known as Pleasant Valley Road, collapsed into a a mine shaft about four weeks ago. The collapsed section was near the Marion County Department of Homeland Security and Emergency Management building.
The first step in the process of repairing a road that is damaged by mine subsidence is for the Division of Highways to notify the state Department of Environmental Protection. According to Division of Highways District Four manager Ray Urse, the DEP has maps of where mining had occurred previously.
“(The DEP) can look on that map instantly and tell instantly if there is potential for (subsidence),” Urse said. “Route 64 in Marion County was a classic case of that.”
According to Urse, the map showed the DEP officials that there was a mine in the location of Pleasant Valley Road. The DEP evaluated the subsidence.
The hole, according to workers on scene after the road collapsed, was about 20 feet deep.
DEP officials contact contractors who bid for the job and are given a timetable to complete filling in the mine shaft.
According to Urse, the contractors filled the shaft with large and then small limestone rocks from the bottom to the top of the mine shaft.
“Had we put asphalt in it immediately on top, there would have been a settlement in the road,” Urse said.
Vehicles driving over the rocks were compacting the smaller rocks and, according to Urse, creating a foundation for the new layer of asphalt…